On January 20th 2001 I gave my first full-length solo recital, in the Musashino Shimin in Tokyo, Japan. That programme was toured variously at that time, and in later seasons developed by the addition of works by Louis Andriessen and Steve Mackey.

This Friday it will be my enormous pleasure to be soloist in HK Gruber's "Rough Music" with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Juanjo Mena. I would strongly contest that this work has earned the status of a "classic" in the repertoire, for being both a pivotal work in the lineage of percussion concerti (a relatively early premiere in our history of 1983) but mainly for the exceptional quality of the music

As some of you will know, I am extremely exercised by one of the most howling examples of poor concert etiquette yet inflicted, in which the cosmic conclusion to Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Kontakte" was destroyed by a lone imbecile intent on including themselves in the proceedings.