Excited to play Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time - the work which instigated my @LonChamberEns 27.1.26 with @AntoineAmi @ianpacemain @cellospooner + @jessicaduchen play A Walk through the End of Time 7-9pm Walton-on-Thames Tx £20 https://t.co/cmcW5UCsTN #HolocaustMemorialDay

Very very pleased that my student Hubert Szczęśniak has been awarded his PhD for the thesis 'Polyphony of the "Wild East": German Operatic and Concert Activity Against the Musical Subsistence of Oppressed Poles and Jews in Krakow and Warsaw (1939-1945)'.

Comedy gold: "Trans scholars being ‘pushed out of academia’, researchers warn". Apparently, denying male academics use of female toilets + not insisting trans people be described in glowing terms = hostile environment for trans people. #SexNotGender https://t.co/1lrYY1T3ja

Also, my Finnissy set is one of the New York Times Top 25 discs of the year. https://t.co/JQqW7sc32F

The 6th top review for my Finnissy set. ‘the single most significant factor in terms of appreciation is Pace’s playing. He’s magnificent’ https://t.co/3ryKQhYUMa

Some people, when their work or that of their friends, is challenged, lash out with personal abuse. Others try to play the fiction. Both of these happened then. I will be considering how rational argument cannot be deflected by demands to sooth ethnomusicological tears. (2/2)

Writing more recently on the ‘Are We All Ethnomusicologists Now?’ debate in 2016. I delivered a concentrated critique of the major texts on Western art music then, arguing many had quite fundamental flaws. The response in the ethnomusicological community was really something. (1)

2/2 The complaints scheme is a key provision of HEFSA, that LUCAF wrote a detailed consultation response about in 2024 (link below). Without the implementation of this scheme, universities can flout their HEFSA duties with impunity.

1/2 LUCAF founder members, together with @ComAcFreedom, have drafted an open letter urging Bridget Phillipson to implement the complaints scheme. Academics, representatives of relevant organisations, and public figures are eligible to sign.

The Spectator’s survey on the greatest arts of the century so far name checking the London Universities Council for Academic Freedom’s resident pianist, the magnificent @ianpacemain

Just submitted the revised post-review version of Rethinking Contemporary Musicologies: Perspectives on Interdisciplinarity, Skills and Deskilling. It should be out some time next year from Routledge. Edited by me, @tregear and Rose Dodd .

Controversial: better than Stoppard, better than Pinter. Seeing The Bite of the Night is one of the greatest cultural experiences of my life. And there have been many more. He is our greatest living playwright.

On the importance of civil service neutrality, by @amanda_spielman

I was captivated by this long recent podcast interview with Howard Barker, who I would call the greatest living UK playwright. It ranges far and wide . Highly recommended. https://t.co/yzvS43v701

Watch out for this volume, to be published in 2026, including my chapter on popular music in higher education and the role of music within it.

A consensus is emerging that we have whole layers of activists-masquerading-as-scholars, and EDI hustlers, and we need some clear-out if things are to improve. Reminded of that dreaded statement ‘EDI is at the heart of all we do’.

Brilliant event organised by @KCLFreeSpeech , with @johnarmstrong5 and @HJoyceGender as speakers, on universities and debates on sex and gender. Harsh words for HE managers who’ve allowed ideological capture, also noting how the issues dominate subjects mostly studied by women.

Just submitted the revised post-review version of Rethinking Contemporary Musicologies: Perspectives on Interdisciplinarity, Skills and Deskilling. It should be out some time next year from Routledge. Edited by me, @tregear and Rose Dodd .

Hugely pleased to see @holysmoke ‘s choice of Finnissy’s History of Photography in Sound, which I premiered, recorded and on which I wrote a monograph, as the greatest artwork so far of the 21st century.

It was a pleasure for @MShipworth and me to see @LauraTrottMP today to discuss the ongoing challenges to free speech and academic freedom. The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act was designed to address many of these challenges. The Government has implemented HEFSA’s key