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.