Sunday saw the first two workshop performances of @firebrigademusical.bsky.social performed by the brilliant University of Lincoln MT second year students, and a creative dream team. Thank you for bringing our story to life! And thank you for the fabulous photos @briansayle.bsky.social !

Two performances of The Cambridge First All-Ladies Fire Brigade coming up in May in Lincoln! Exciting times..

Helen Arney@helenarney.bsky.social · 5mo ago

“It’s really happening… it’s kind of overwhelming… it’s all the knowledge we have dreamt of holding in our hands”🧯🚒👩‍🚒 Announcing TWO performances of “The Cambridge First All-Ladies Fire Brigade” at Lincoln Uni, with their amazing students! 3+8pm on Sun 10 May Tix: firebrigademusical.com/about

Went to numerous shops today in an attempt to find either a) a long cardigan or b) a normal ish sunhat that fits my daftly small head. Apparently none of these things are currently available in shops and I'll have to look online instead. But why?

Off to the theatre for the afternoon. I struggle with freezing in air con. As a result I'm one of few people carrying a cardigan on the tube in a heatwave. The theatre might not even have air con..

My printer seems to think this is an appropriate size for sheet music..

My new printer sings to me and I'm very happy about it. When I ask it to print something it plays a chord, then sings an upward scale, finishing on the major 7th and adding a trill!

Currently doing the typical composer procrastination of ignoring the music I need to be writing because I reallyreally want to write the fun piece that just popped into my head..

The London Festival of Contemporary Church Music might be over for another year, but you can listen to their LFCCM @ Home series online! On 13th May they shared an @ Home Organ Recital, featuring my Study in Five performed by Martyn Noble: lfccm.com/whatson/even...

Wrote a piece about Avril Coleridge-Taylor, her dad, and the @royalalberthall.bsky.social -- sarahwhitfield.com/2025/05/12/a...

New gardening level unlocked: Dropping of something at someone's house and taking a moment to complement their wisteria!

If you're in Southampton at the end of the month, you should go to The Stage Door and hear them sing some of the songs from @firebrigademusical.bsky.social (the musical I'm writing with @jennipinnock.com and @helenarney.bsky.social !) thestagedoor.org.uk/product.php/...

In the aftermath of my sell-out talk at Royston Museum, here's more riotous behaviour? @balhnews.bsky.social @thebhp.bsky.social @bho.bsky.social @sslh.bsky.social @hertshistory.bsky.social @hisjournalha.bsky.social @jennipinnock.com @roystoncrow.bsky.social grahampalmer.co.uk/revolting-ro...

Revolting Royston (part 2): Royston's Bastille - Graham Palmer

Will there be a riot when the 'Reverend Agitator' FH Maberly calls a mass meeting in 1836 to protest against Royston's new Poor Law Workhouse?

grahampalmer.co.uk

Starting the day with a final proof read of the Shifting Seasons score (accompanied by a cup of tea!). Shifting Seasons is a new song cycle of five settings of texts by women writers, supported by the Vaughan Williams Foundation @vwfndn.bsky.social

On Sunday 29th June Leading Voices LDN are presenting 22 songs by 22 British and UK-based writers at The Union Theatre, London - and they're including Put Out The Fire from The Cambridge First All-Ladies Fire Brigade! See their website for more info: www.leadingvoicesldn.com

Tonight's redrafting mainly involves adding in all the slurs.

Happy Star Wars Day! Alas we hadn't any Star Wars sheet music today, so our wind dectet added some ET to the programme instead..

Happy Birthday Hertha Ayrton! Physicist, inventor, science communicator, social activist and founder of the Cambridge First All-Ladies Fire Brigade: youtube.com/watch?v=lkiU...

The Cambridge First All-Ladies Fire Brigade - Birmingham Hippodrome New Musicals Showcase

YouTube video by Birmingham Hippodrome

youtube.com

‪ Today is International Workers' Memorial Day. In the 1870s many lost their lives in the coprolite diggings of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and South Cambridgeshire. There is no memorial to them. #IWMD2025 www.cracked-voices.co.uk/poo-and-pick...

The great Hertha Ayrton was born 171 years ago today. She developed a carbon arc light that eliminated the flickering of previous models, then used her knowledge of fluid dynamics to develop an anti poison-gas fan that could have saved thousands in WWI. tinyurl.com/a29cy3kz #WomenInSTEM #HistSci 🧪

She Sang the Arc Electric: Hertha Marks Ayrton

Sometimes, simplicity dooms.  In World War I, chlorine gas hailed down upon the British soldiers trudging through their semi-lives in the trenches, killing thousands outright and leaving tens of thous...

tinyurl.com

A peaceful walk in the woods to start my composing day right.

Remembered to prune the wisteria at the right times and it is far happier for it. Best show of flowers yet!

Busy working on the children's musical theatre education today.

Two of my pieces will be performed as part of the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music next month. Organist Martyn Noble will perform Cassiopeia and Tanquinto as he opens the Festival's organ recital series on Friday 9th May, 6.45pm at St James's Sussex Gardens. lfccm.com/whatson/even...

Today I've written some waltz-like piano parts, some very moto perpetuo style piano parts, and have finished off the day with some incredibly stabby piano. Less piano tomorrow maybe?

Adding to @helenarney.bsky.social 's "Sometimes writing a musical involves.." series - You know you're writing a musical when at 11pm you both have ideas on how to fix two bars of a piece, and then you have to sit down at the piano to sort it out.. (while giving @mackenwells.bsky.social earworms!)

Solidarity to all others trying to juggle their work with the children over the Easter break. My house is significantly louder than it would normally be and finding brain space is even more of a challenge - even with older kids!

Very excited that @helenarney.bsky.social , @mackenwells.bsky.social and I are part of Lincoln Art Centre's Innovate Artists 2025! Looking forward to stoking more embers as we continue developing the show, and especially excited to be working with students at the University of Lincoln's MT dept!

Helen Arney@helenarney.bsky.social · last yr.

Sharing brilliant news that @jennipinnock.com and @mackenwells.bsky.social are part of Lincoln Arts Centre's 2025 Innovate Artist intake! Can't wait to work with local talent to bring @firebrigademusical.bsky.social to life here - one of our Fire Fighters is Lincoln-born Charlotte Scott! 🔥🔥🔥

It's the first day of the school holidays here, so composition time has to be accompanied by a cup of tea and a hot cross bun...

Since S has not yet joined Bluesky I'll give her wonderful art song blog, Liederabend, a shout-out here. The post about "Die Nachtigall" from one of my favourite song cycles, "Sieben frühe Lieder" by Alban Berg, is wonderful. You can read it yourself here: www.liederabend.cat/en/bloc/entr...

The nightingale

Cançó de la setmana: Die Nachtigall (A. Berg) - J. Kleiter, M. Gees

liederabend.cat

Dorico lets you choose how many new bars you'd like to add. Due to a typing error I just extended a score by a rather ambitious 220 bars..