I’m enjoying my first trip to Latvia, playing two concerts at the Introvert Music Festival. Last night I played a concert featuring only slow music! by Bach, Metcalfe, Schumann, Part, Rachmaninov and improvisations, to an audience that appeared not to get at all bored. Tomorrow night I will play a concert starting at 11pm, and I’ll play all through the night - mostly improvisations on acoustic and electric cellos - before being joined by Sanju Sahai, table player, at 7am to finish off the performance prior to a very large breakfast. The audience will bring sleeping bags and cushions, and will stretch out on the floor of the hall in the amazing 18th Century Vecgulbenes Manor House. It’s something new for me…watch this space for a write up soon…

Very nice to be back at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam for a night with the Metropole Strings. As the world’s foremost jazz orchestra it was always going to be an exciting week, but it did surpass expectations, as in the concert (some arrangements for cello and strings, some impro, and some devised w0rk), they REALLY went for it! It was absolutely wonderful to be a part of, as the energy was exceptional - they were so open and generous with their musicality on stage. The (small but perfectly formed) audience responded well, and seemed to totally get the quality of what they were doing which was great. So that’s 2 fantastic nights at the Bimhuis in one month - I love playing there!

I’ve just heard about an incredible venture that 3 mad English cellists are undertaking: they will walk 192 miles from coast to coast, with cellos on their backs, to raise money for some great charities. Please check it out - Extreme Cellists - and please donate and tell your friends! It’s brilliant! And good luck to the guys - I hope the weather is great, and that your cello case straps are strong…

it’s been a very satisfying week in HK, and actually felt like a mini-festival, with 3 programmes and 5 concerts in 6 days. The orchestra were wonderful, and made a fantastic progression with their improvising during the week - the concert today was their best one, and really sounded great: confident, inventive and with substance. Today was a concert for families, and it was standing room only as hundreds of people braved the torrential rain to come and listen to Piazzolla, Schumann, improvisations and Tchaikovsky. Back home for a day, then off to Holland to work with the legendary Metropole jazz orchestra….hmm, need to finish the last Coltrane arrangement on the plane…

Great to back in Hong Kong - it’s been a few years, and it’s such an exciting city. My hotel room is on the 29th floor looking out over the bay and the view is just fantastic…great hotel - there’s even a slot for my iphone to play music in the room.

The Hong Kong Sinfonietta are feeling adventurous this week, so they’ve invited me to play with them as a soloist, conduct them in Tchaikovsky, and teach them to improvise as an orchestra which we will be doing in a couple of the concerts this week. I’m also playing a concert where the audience will bring yoga mats and stretch away as I play. I like Hong Kong.