Published Articles
Cricket Mania
For years now, I’ve been experiencing the onset of a slow love affair with cricket. Maybe it’s because I love puzzles (especially the cryptic kind), and here in North...
Our Constant Companion
It’s been six years since the tsunami devastated South & Southeast Asia, and just over a year since the massive earthquake in Haiti. There was a lot of coverage...
Signal to Noise
These days my tinnitus is pretty bad. It’s a ringing in my ear that I notice most frequently at night, when all else is quiet. It used to be...
News & Blog Posts
In Concert wins Silver Medal for Best Classical Format
It’s a thrill to announce that In Concert has won a Silver Medal for “Best Classical Format” at this year’s New York Festivals Radio Awards. I’m lucky to work...
Do the instruments of the orchestra have specific personalities?
I went to a high school that had a full symphony orchestra, and even back then I could see, as a lowly quirky nerdy bassoonist, that certain instruments attracted...
Announcing a new radio series about classical music in China
There are few places right now that have the electricity and the energy that is flowing through the city of Shanghai. Perhaps you’ve seen pictures of the incredible skyline...
The Signature Series wins prestigious Prix Italia
The Prix Italia is one of the most coveted awards in broadcasting in the world. It’s an incredible honour for me and for my co-producer Denise Ball to...
Reminiscing about summer camp and the Fountains of Rome
This Sunday I’m lucky enough to begin a fantastic gig: hosting CBC Radio 2’s weekly classical music performance program, In Concert. Preparing tomorrow’s show put me in mind of...
Why it’s pointless to classify Rufus Wainwright
The year I moved to Vancouver, I arrived in the middle of November. It was dark and gloomy and dreary and rainy. I did a lot of walking that...
America the Beautiful
Here are some of my favourite things about America: Win Butler. Big Sur. The drumming of Art Blakey. The Third Coast International Audio Festival in Chicago. My earliest memories,...
The power of dramatic irony in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia
Dramatic irony is one of those storytelling techniques we all learn about in high school, and I haven’t thought about it much since then – except to enjoy it,...
Filling in for Quinn On the Coast
For the next week and a half I’ll be filling in for host Stephen Quinn on CBC Radio Vancouver’s afternoon drive show, On the Coast – an enormous privilege, and...
Celebrating the Year of the Tiger
The Chinese New Year is next week, and the Year of the Tiger is coming to a close. I’ve been thinking a lot about tigers this week, because I...
The enduring appeal of the Carmen archetype
This Saturday, on CBC Radio’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera, I’ll be presenting a Canadian Opera Company production of Georges Bizet’s Carmen, starring soprano Rinat Shaham. Carmen is an...
Listening for Chopin’s Ghost in the soundwaves
I always like it when something opens up my ears in ways I hadn’t considered. That’s exactly what happened this week when I listened to a new piece by...
The Cunning Little Vixen
When I was a kid, like many kids, the stories I loved best were the ones with talking animals, from Louis the swan in The Trumpet of the Swan,...
Sweet summer music
Once in a while I’m lucky enough to get to keep Sheryl MacKay‘s chair warm while she’s off on holiday. This weekend on NXNW on CBC Radio 1 I’m...