Philip Spires commonplace book

I have kept a commonplace book for many years. It's a place where scraps of impressions are filed for future reflection. It's not a diary, it's just a mental scrapbook, concentrating on book reviews, concert reviews, visual arts and some occasional pieces on travel. It is also a place where I occasionally reflect on what I write. Details of my books can be found at http://www.philipspires.co.uk

Monday, September 28, 2026

Programa de mano de 8 oct 2026 - Denia International Piano Festival - Mathis Cathignol

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Sunday, September 27, 2026

New season of ADDA concerts opens with The Ring Without Words

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  The new season of ADDA concerts, titled Naturaleza, vida y amor , began last night with an unusual program. Single work programs are often...
Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Size matters, but length is not important – Einstein On The Beach in Valencia

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  A performance of a piece of music-theatre that lasts in its originally scored version for between four and five hours, for most concertgoe...
Sunday, September 20, 2026

Nicola Kos and Danijel Gašparović open the fourth Denia International Piano Festival with works by Beethoven, Papanopulo, Moszkowski and Ravel

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  Last night Nicola Kos and Danijel Gašparović opened the Denia International Piano Festival with a concert of music for four hands. The Cro...
Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Programa de 19 sep 2026 Denia International Piano Festival - Duo Kos-Gasparovic

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Friday, August 7, 2026

Ars Alta announces the fourth Denia International Piano Festival - 19 Sept to 3 Dec 2026

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  Piano Duo Kos–Gašparović invites you to experience music at its highest level, where two exceptional artists perform with remarkable unit...
Tuesday, August 4, 2026

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This Side Of Paradise is a very famous novel and justly so. Its author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, has been something of a blind spot for me. I re...
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philipspires
I was born in Wakefield and was brought up in Sharslton, a mining Village. I went to London University and then became a maths teacher, working initially as a volunteer teacher in Kenya. I spent sixteen years in London, in Balham and Islington. In 1992, I left Britain for Brunei and then Zayed University in Abu Dhabi. I currently live in La Nucia, near Benidorm in Spain. I am interested in the relationship between nature and nurture, birthright and experience. Themes of culture and identity and their relation to economic and social roles underpin my writing. What we are born into relates to what we become, but we are rarely in control. What others do, our interests and intellects and the way we choose to earn a living, all of these shape us into what we become. It may be that culture is the sum of all assumptions that others make on our behalf, whereas identity represents our reactions to them. I did a PhD on the effects of education in economic development in the Philippines. I was President of Alfas del Pi Music Society for twelve years.
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