Farewell 2012

I will always have fond memories of 2012. It was a funny year in some ways - a year in which I didn't work on a single book, but was busy in other, exciting and distracting ways. A good year.


Much work done for Naxos Records, illustrating apps (a first for me, notoriously wary of anything digital!); many school visits all over Britain and even nine schools in Spain; two books safely sent out into the world: Katie and the Starry Night and Ella Bella Ballerina and the Nutcracker.

It was a year when I became Sinbad, Vincent van Gogh and Godfather Drosselmeyer. A year filled with music - family illustrated concerts with four splendid orchestras, including The Orchestra of the Music Makers from Singapore and the Docklands Sinfonia. A year of festivals, from Hay to Cheltenham to Pop Up to Edinburgh to Bath. And a year of carefully made plans - some of which I hope will bear fruit in 2013

Thanks to everyone who has been part of the exciting projects undertaken. Is there a single highlight? Perhaps...

I think the most extraordinary moment was receiving a parcel from a 8 year old musical genius, Edward Tomanek - I visited his school in Cambridge and gave him a copy of my book Tales from Russia (his ancestral country). In return he composed a piece of music for me: The Gratitude Waltz, and sent the score and a recording of the piece played by himself... you can only imagine how touched I was!

So, yes... a good year! And tomorrow - I'll unveil plans for 2013!

A Fludde of ideas... for Cheltenham 2013

OF ALL THE DREAMS I harbour, working with musicians and one day designing for an opera are the most cherished. I'm not a musician (alas), but music has always brought such joy and passion into my world. Music has always told me stories, even as a child... and as an adult I've loved creating and performing all the children's concerts I've participated in over the last 6 years, and those in Cheltenham have been particularly lovely: An Ella Bella ballet concert in 2011 and Scheherazade with the Orchestra of the Music Makers this year.




So I'm especially happy to have been invited back next year, and this time in the extraordinary position of Guest Director of the Cheltenham Music Festival's children's events. What an honour! The complete list of my tasks has not been finalised yet, but I can confirm two of them:




The festival will celebrate the centenary of Benjamin Britten's birth, and in his honour, will be presenting Noye's Fludde, his operatic setting of the Chester Mystery Play about Noah. It will take place in Tewkesbury Abbey, a magnificent setting, one which is itself no stranger to floodwaters. Indeed the Abbey became famous in 2007 when terrible floods swept over the town, while the Abbey, standing aloft like a great ark, was miraculously saved.





The opera is written specifically for performances in churches, and is a children's opera, in the sense that the orchestra and chorus and most principles, are cast from school children. The orchestration includes tuned teacups, and story features a tipsy Mrs Noah who refuses, at first, to board the ark. It also demands audience participation with hymns written into the fabric of the score. It's a wonderful piece and so you can imagine how delighted I was when festival director Meurig Bowen asked me to design the opera. And so this is my first task!

I am determined to come up with something striking and appropriate. The ship-like abbey is my first "port of call", I want to echo the structure on the ceiling for the ark. For the animals, the ceiling mottes and decorations are a fabulous source of inspiration. I did some sketching there and was already drawing and developing ideas on my train home... I am now looking through books of heraldry, medieval bestiaries and the like. The analogy of the story to modern times, and environmental issues, is something the director Edward Derbyshire, is keen to investigate too. So a LOT to think about. I'll post my progress here on the blog.

Keeping the Britten anniversary on the agenda, will be a new script - by me - for The Young Person's PAINTED Guide to the Orchestra; my second task. I'll be teaming up with the famous Chetham's Symphony Orchestra to present this new version of a children's classic, one which allows me to paint as well as narrate, in a concert in the Town Hall; it will be a wonderful introduction to the orchestra for children.

Funnily enough, I grew up very close to Britten's birthplace - Lowestoft. Indeed, my Grandmother was at school with him; I myself went to the Benjamin Britten High School in Lowestoft. So many resonances, many memories. And a lot of work.

2013 is going to be an amazing year!

Carry on Katie

Finally, after months of speculation and resistance, I have reached an agreement with Orchard Book. There WILL be a new Katie story, to publish in her 25th anniversary year, 2014. And as I rush around preparing for the festive season, it seems especially appropriate that it wll be a Katie at Christmas theme. It will not be an art book, but an adventure with her brother Jack in the manner of Katie in London and Katie in Scotland.

The Nutcracker goes East!

Last night The Docklands Sinfonia brought a bit of festive magic to the East End of London, to Limehouse specifically - in the magnificent St Anne's Church.

It was a full and generous programme; The first half included Italian music from Verdi and Respighi, the latter's Pines of Rome complete with enchanting bird song.

But the highlight was the world premiere of Lucy Pankhurst's new work for orchestra, Ticket: 250654. This is the ticket number issued to the eight musicians hired by the White Star Line for the maiden voyage of the Titanic. Written in this centenary year as a tribute to their extraordinary bravery (all eight perished, playing their instruments until the very end), this was a kind of tone poem, depicting (it seemed) the scale and magnificence of the ship in a grand opening, to the icy chill of the freezing water, and the fear and desperate sadness of the tragedy.

Lucy made brilliant rhythmic use of the Morse code: the Titanic was the first ship to use the SOS distress signal. She also used the number eight as an influence within the structure. It was a haunting, often beautiful and ultimately moving piece - what a privilege to be there (and indeed meet the composer). The performance ended with a moment's silence, and then - with extraordinary timing - the church bells rang out for eight o'clock. A wonderful, poignant moment.

After the interval the sleepy headed children were woken up with Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker - with a bit of storytelling and illustration from me. This differed a little from the Hatfield performances: I painted on white instead of black, as this suited the projection at St. Anne's much better.

Afterwards the pictures were auctioned (splendidly by Reverend Warren) with funds going towards purchasing the projecting equipment in order to be able to repeat performances like this for schools in Tower Hamlets, a wonderful plan which would give children from all backgrounds the opportunity to engage with superb music, performed by wonderfully gifted people. My thanks to all those who bidded - the money will go a long way to making a very real difference to young people in the East End.

And that brings me to the orchestra - they were fantastic. This is a voluntary orchestra who play for the love of it. And they played superbly. Mostly young professionals, with superb music skills, they were a lovely group of warm and welcoming people - it was a huge honour to work with them, and with their visionary conductor-founder, Spencer Down.

It was an appropriately cold and frosty night; today advent calendars are being opened up as the countdown to Christmas begins. The sugar sprinkled magic of Tchaikovsky yesterday was the perfect way to start the festivities! My thanks to everyone at St. Anne's,  Spencer,  and the Docklands Sinfonia for a really memorable night - and to all who came.