Edinburgh Appearance

My orchestra piece Forest is being played (by Edward Gardner and the LPO) in the Edinburgh Festival on Tuesday. I'm about to pack my bags - bearing in mind that this is Edinburgh, and "Storm Floris" is forecast to hit those already windy streets. In the next couple of days, we'll also manage to see the new play Make it Happen (starring Brian Cox as Adam Smith) and exhibitions by Andy Goldsworthy and Steve McQueen. It seems to me that Festival director Nicky Benedetti is restoring the sense of excitement spreading over all artforms which I can remember from my earliest visits with my family in the 1960s.

This is the first time that I've had a piece programmed in one of the big Festival Usher Hall concerts, although I did once play there myself aged 17, with the National Youth Orchestra. Pierre Boulez conducted, and Yehudi Menuhin performed the Berg concerto. It's a big deal to me, after all this time, to have my own music programmed in a comparable slot. Or as it was helpfully pointed out to me, "You were 17 then, and now you're 71. Spooky !"