Soundbites
School champion
Six schools in deprived areas of Manchester have welcomed the arrival of new digital pianos, donated by Manchester City footballer Nathan Aké. The Dutch star, who taught himself how to play the piano during lockdown, says he is keen to share the benefits of playing. ‘When you really tune into the music, it’s just the music,’ he explains. ‘For the mental health... it’s a good getaway, in a very positive way.’
Noble gesture
Pianist Evgeny Kissin, who would doubtless echo Aké’s sentiments, is also sharing his philanthropic outlook, in his case by donating a recital – of Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms and Prokofiev at Wigmore Hall on 29 June – to the Jeremy Singer Charitable Trust. The trust, which aims to raise funds for disadvantaged university students, is named after Kissin’s cousin, who died aged 37 in 2012. See jsct.org.uk for details.
History lesson
The Academy of Ancient Music is celebrating one of Britain’s earliest known Black composers by commissioning a new work for period instruments. Roderick Williams’s From Ignatius Sancho, to be performed in May, is inspired by the multi-talented figure who, born on a slave ship in 1729, would also go on to be a major figure in the abolition movement and the first Black person known to have voted in a British general election.
Electric return
At the other end of the instrument timescale, maybe one day Roderick Williams will also be tempted to write a work for the Omnichord? The electronic instrument, which is operated by dragging the fingers across a touch-sensitive panel, enjoyed a boom in popularity in the 1980s and early ’90s before slowly falling out of favour. But now, Japan’s Suzuki Musical Instrument Corporation says it has plans to relaunch it with a new, updated version.