'Why we are shutting children out of classical music'

A thought-provoking piece in yesterday's Guardian from Tom Service, with a cogent analysis of the state of music education in schools. Orchestras' Creative Learning teams - not least ours - do brilliant work, but can themselves only reach a limited number of children each year.

Vibrato Wars

Sir Roger Norrington has stirred up a debate since his recent Prom on whether and when string players should use vibrato: will he or won't he ban it at the Last Night? See Tom Service's blog in The Times for the full story.