mr simcock again

seems Gwilym Simcock (performing as part of Acoustic Triangle on 10 July) has been nominated for both Best Instrumentalist and Best Album in the 2008 BBC Jazz Awards to be announced on 21 July. The late Humphrey Lyttelton (Humph Remembered on 11 July) has received a posthumous nomination for the Radio 2 Jazz Artist of the Year.

visa trouble

news just in - it seems that only 15 of the 16 musicians involved in the Russian Chamber Philharmonic St Petersburg performance on 4 July received their UK visas a fortnight ago, with their principal cellist still waiting. trying to discuss this with the British Consulate in Düsseldorf is difficult because they have outsourced all their visa applications. seems that an expensive phone call within Germany or an email are my two options for trying to find out what is going on. just fired off an email in the hope of a relatively quick response.

volunteer shirts have arrived

new festival shirts for our volunteers have arrived, replacing last year's black version.

since the 2005 Festival we've vastly grown our volunteer base. over the next two weeks nearly 200 people, over 25% of whom are under 25 will be working behind the scenes to make everything run smoothly, providing crucial support. these shirts subtly increase our exposure throughout the city, and help identify who is involved. the happy model is Richard, our volunteer co-ordinator...
Interested in volunteering? More information here.

three days

three full days to go before everything starts up, and out my window I can see the marquees going up on the cathedral lawns. By this time in previous years, we would also have started bringing sound, lights, staging and visual arts into the cathedral, but for the first year we only have access from after evensong tomorrow evening. It will be tight to get everything ready in time for Thursday morning, but it should all happen to plan...

matthew mcdonald

this has nothing to do with the imminent festival, but I just found out that a friend of mine, the double bass player Matthew McDonald, has been appointed Principal Bass of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra replacing the astounding Klaus Stoll who is retiring after 43 years in the job. Matt becomes the first Australian to win a principal position in this orchestra.