Hello and welcome to your Patreon exclusive mini episode.

I'm sharing today's mini episode for two reasons.

The first is that I wanted to show all of you who are not subscribed on Patreon what I put up there every week. Every Thursday

I do a sort of deep dive on a specific passage that I didn't have time to get to in

the main show. Sometimes it's a specific passage of our

orchestration that I particularly love or sometimes it's a specific passage of our orchestration that I particularly love, or sometimes it's looking at a specific movement, like today's episode on the 25th variation, the Black Pearl, of the Goldberg Variations.

I really enjoy doing these episodes as they allow me to get right into the nuts and bolts of how a passage is put together.

The second reason I'm sharing this episode today is that I need to make the announcement, the happy announcement that I am very likely to be beginning to conduct again after a period of five months.

In September, the Lozan Chamber Orchestra and I are planning a Beethoven cycle where we play all nine symphonies in 11 days the perfect way to shake the rust off for the moment these concerts are going ahead which is great news but the partial resumption of my conducting schedule means that I will just no longer have time to make

two episodes a week. So we're going to return to the pre-pendemic schedule of a new show every

Thursday, but I'm also going to continue making these many episodes.

So if you would like to check those out, do check out the Patreon page at patreon.com slash sticky notes

podcast. That's P-A-T- slash sticky notes podcast. I also just want to say

thank you to everybody who has been listening to the show not only over the last five months

but over the last three years. This is really one of my

favorite things to do every week and as I start conducting again it's also a joy to

know that I can sit down to write a podcast every week or talk with a great artist from

around the world. Now obviously the pandemic isn't over and I know that my concerts and also my colleagues

concerts could be cancelled just before they happen due to restrictions and we're obviously in this period of uncertainty until there is a global vaccine

but it's been despite everything great to be able to focus on writing this show for

all of you so thank you for sticking with it and for listening. I say sometimes that music can't change the world, but it can make it seem a little bit better for the few minutes you're listening to a piece of music. I've certainly felt that over the last five months and in the midst of

all of this tragedy and uncertainty I hope that's been the case for you as well.

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