How long has it been!

Oh dear! I've gone the way of several bloggers and have very quiet for a number of months. Plenty of reasons why, of course - largely to do with the widening of my role here at the Royal Concert Hall - but really that's not much of an excuse. So here's a New Year's Resolution - at least one post every fortnight and we'll see if I can stick to it!

So what's been happening over the last three months? The first bit of good news is that despite all the economic gloom, Nottingham Classics audiences are still going up. So far we are ahead of target on every concert, which is a reassuring position to be in during times like these. And, touch wood, this looks like continuing into 2010. Most striking is the response to Mahler's Second Symphony. In previous seasons Mahler has performed very creditably, thank you, with audiences around 1500 but from sales so far it looks like we could have a full house on 31 January. A campaign to recruit new Mahler audiences from our regular concert-goers has been enthusiastically received, so much so that we might not be able to offer quite so many standby seats on the day of the concert - a situation that I've not encountered in my time working for Nottingham Classics.

Having just been away for three weeks in New Zealand the scenes of snow-engulfed cars and skating rink pavements when Deb and I returned last Sunday were an unwelcome start to the New Year but now that the jet lag has worn off the next few months look a lot more exciting. Almost immediately after the Mahler performance we welcome one of the most astonishing young conducting talents in the world when Andris Nelsons visits Nottingham for the first time with the CBSO. If you haven't seen him before then, whatever you do, don't miss the all-Russian concert on 4 February - he's a phenomenal talent and has the most extraordinary chemistry with an orchestra that I've ever seen (you can find out more about him in Richard Morrison's article for The Times - click here to read it). The very next day we'll be welcoming over 3500 Nottinghamshire schoolkids for Now Hear This, the Nottingham Classics Schools' Concert with the Hallé, now so popular that we're now running two performances the same day. And then, just a couple of weeks later we've got the Czech National Symphony Orchestra here with legendary conductor, Libor Pesek.

Whilst all of this is going on, I'll be finalising next season's programme. As ever, there are a few concert items being negotiated but much of it is now in place and I think it's looking pretty strong, though time will tell, of course. There are some new developments, too, which I can't mention just yet but which will definitely add another dimension to the series. AFTER:hours will continue, too - the success of our opening event (with ViVA performing Adams, Vivaldi and Glass to a large and lively crowd) has encouraged us to go boldly on with offering more music beyond the mainstream in an informal ambience.

Oh, and the Beeb will be back with another instalment of Radio 3's Discovering Music. Our audience for Bruckner 6 was the largest that the BBC Phil have played to in one of these concerts, so thanks to everyone for supporting it and putting us on the broadcasting map. No news yet of a transmission date for the programme but I'll let you know when I get it.

Right - I've got several hundred posters that need sending out, so that's my afternoon sorted. Watch out for the next blog in a fortnight (otherwise I'll be inflicting some kind of forfeit on myself).