{"id":377,"date":"2010-06-17T09:43:48","date_gmt":"2010-06-17T09:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/2010\/06\/17\/a-boy-called-alex-exclusive\/"},"modified":"2010-06-17T09:43:48","modified_gmt":"2010-06-17T09:43:48","slug":"a-boy-called-alex-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/2010\/06\/17\/a-boy-called-alex-exclusive\/","title":{"rendered":"A Boy Called Alex: EXCLUSIVE!"},"content":{"rendered":"

You remember Alex Stobbs, the young musician who featured in the Channel 4 documentary A Boy Called Alex<\/em> and the follow-up A Passion for Life<\/em>? The films traced his determination, despite suffering cystic fibrosis, to conduct first Bach\u2019s Magnificat<\/em> and then the St Matthew Passion<\/em>. I also recommend his book<\/a>, which makes harrowing yet inspiring reading. He\u2019s studying music at Cambridge now and on Saturday he will be conducting a choral programme of Parry, Mozart, Schumann and Bach in King\u2019s College Chapel. It\u2019s been touch-and-go since he has only just come out of hospital after a bad bout of illness, but his devotion to his music remains undimmed. With a little help from my friends, I\u2019m pleased to present an exclusive JDCMB\/Standpoint e-interview with him.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Q: Alex, why did you decide to put this concert on?<\/em><\/p>\n

AS: I realised that growing up I have been very fortunate to know some extremely talented young musicians, from my time as a chorister at King\u2019s, as a music scholar at Eton and my return to King\u2019s as a choral scholar, and simply wanted to pool that talent to play some exciting music, which perhaps doesn\u2019t get performed as often as it should. Nick Robinson (Headmaster of King\u2019s College School, Cambridge where I was a chorister) is chairman of Future Talent, has been a fantastic help in organising the concert \u2013 I have to work for my degree, after all!<\/p>\n

Q: What was the idea behind the programme? (<\/em>My soul, there is a country<\/em> \u2013 Parry; An die sterne \u2013 Schumann; <\/em>Lord, let me know mine end \u2013 Parry; Symphony No. 35 \u2013 Mozart; Cantata 201 \u201cThe Contest Between Phoebus and Pan\u201d \u2013 Bach)<\/em><\/p>\n

AS: Singing his music at King\u2019s and at Eton, it was very easy to fall in love with the splendour of Parry\u2019s choral music. The two motets of his I will conduct are\u00a0<\/em>two of my favourite works of Parry , <\/em>with the second in particular an incredible example of harmonic development. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The two Parry motets are separated by a Schumann work, taken from his Op. 141, a collection of four secular double choir motets. 2010 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Schumann and although I am very familiar with his lieder and instrumental works, before recently I didn\u2019t know anything about his choral output. So after browsing and listening for a while, I came across this exquisite collection, and it was the first of the four that really left an impression on me.I am very lucky to know many very good singers in Cambridge and elsewhere, so although this piece will be new for most them, I am confident they will enjoy it as much as I do. Following that the Mozart was quite an easy choice \u2013 I am familiar with it since I conducted part of it in a concert at the RNCM two years ago, and have been dying to perform it in its entirety ever since!<\/p>\n

The Bach I studied this year during the course of my degree, and as it\u2019s one of the most operatic of his cantata output, and not one I previously knew, I felt I should take up the challenge. <\/p>\n

Generally the programme contains no piece that is regularly performed \u2013 if this concert is as enjoyable and successful as I hope it will be, I mix old with new in future concerts by commissioning friends to compose works for such performances. Hopefully next year I\u2019ll do one concert a term at least, for charity or just for the pleasure of rehearsing and performing engaging music! Of course every concert gives me experience in directing and conducting, which I\u2019ve enjoyed since the age of 14 \u2013 but ultimately whilst I\u2019m at Cambridge, my degree comes first.<\/p>\n

Q: How does your current state of health affects the way you feel about the concert?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0AS: I came out of hospital on Friday (11th June) so I\u2019m not on tip-top form, but I\u2019m still incredibly excited about the concert. My doctors let me out on the condition that I finish a two week course of IV\u2019s (intravenous antibiotics) at King\u2019s. Hopefully there will be no further hiccups!<\/p>\n

The concert is at King\u2019s College, Cambridge, on Saturday 19 June, 7.30pm. Tickets: phone King\u2019s on 01223 365 814, \u00a330, \u00a325, \u00a320 and \u00a310. Proceeds go to Future Talent and the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/i><\/a><\/i><\/a><\/i><\/a><\/i><\/a><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n


\n\"\"A boy\u2019s own adventure<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You remember Alex Stobbs, the young musician who featured in the Channel 4 documentary A Boy Called Alex and the follow-up A Passion for Life? The films traced his determination, despite suffering cystic fibrosis, to conduct first Bach’s Magnificat and then the St Matthew Passion. I also recommend his book, which makes harrowing yet inspiring reading. He’s studying music at Cambridge now and on Saturday he will be conducting a choral programme of Parry, Mozart, Schumann and Bach in King’s College Chapel. It’s been touch-and-go since he has only just come out of hospital after a bad bout of illness, but his devotion to his music remains undimmed. With a little help from my friends, I’m pleased to present an exclusive JDCMB\/Standpoint e-interview with him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ondrocks2000.com\/standpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}