Saturday, January 07, 2006 at 14:54   Welcome to my website. This website is still alive and kicking. 23/06/2008 ’Music for Eight Instruments’ will be performed by the Israel Contemporary Players in the Israeli Music Festival in September. The performance will be conducted by Nitsan Liebovitch. I am not interested in promoting commercial enterprises through this site, rather in hosting links to other musicians who are interested in a reciprocal arrangement. I want to thank those who have helped me and advised me with promoting my music: Zmira Lutsky, Lea Lior, Adam Baruch, Nitsan Kremer, Baruch Weiss, Yossi Acchoti, Zvi Yaffe, Yoram Lachish and John Davis. My new solo piano album - "Seeing Sky" was released in February. It is available in Israel at most specialty music stores, in Australia at the Australian Music Centre and online at Jazzis and at CDBaby. Adam Baruch from Jazzis wrote: "Australian born pianist / composer John Bostock, living in Israel since the late 1980s is one of the most interesting musicians active in the country." His knowledgeable review can be found at https://www.jazzis.com/shop/default.asp?item=102501 Adam’s review of about my 2004 release - "Journey to Gythia" - was enthusiastic : "I can’t imagine a more perfect execution of this music other than what is present on this record. Supported by two marvelous players: Guy Levy on bass and Danny Benedict on drums, this piano trio is truly exceptional, bringing immediate associations with Bill Evans, especially in view of the absolute technical brilliance and fluidity of Bostock’s piano playing, the amazing interplay between the trio members and the romantic, lyrical character of the music. " Read the full review at https://www.jazzis.com/shop/default.asp?item=102506 On 12/03/2008 I gave a piano recital at Hateiva in Jaffa, the home of the 21st Century ensemble, to support the release of "Seeing Sky". The concert was totally improvised from start to finish. The best comment came from Amit ,the concert organizer, who had read the blurb not heard my music before said: "Now I understand what you mean by the title Seeing Sky". The blurb quoted my late, respected piano teacher Roger Frampton who had told me: "When you improvise, a trap door opens in your head. You can see the sky, the moon and the stars. You want to reach up to touch the sky but if you do the door snaps shut. Improvisation is the act of balancing the will to reach out with the need to keep that trapdoor open." It seems that composition has had to take a back seat but there are still some projects on the boil. Hoping for a rerun of ’Music for Eight Instruments’ by the 21st Century ensemble this year at the Hag HaMusica HaIsraelit. 02/06/06 The first opportunity to take a breath after the last hectic week. Saxophonist and vocalist - John Tchicai visited Israel last week for the White Nights Festival of Alternative Contemporary music. After he expressed the desire to work with piano and drums the organizers hastily contacted me. Together with drummer Noam David we rehearsed and put together an hour of material (mostly freely improvised) around John’s tunes and the Monk standard Pannonica. The full audience responded ecstatically to John’s playing and singing. It was indeed a privilege to work with such an outstanding and mature musicican. I learnt much from his confidence, demeanour and modesty. A real gentleman. More news: My CD - Journey to Gythia has finally been uploaded to the CDBaby website. First buyer - someone from Japan. Thank you. Now, if you wish to buy a copy over the web, there is a link to CDBaby on the discography page. 13/03/06 A quick reminder that my work "Music For Eight Instruments" receives its premiere performance by the 21st Century Ensemble on the 18th March in Tel Aviv and the 19th in Jerusalem. If you need more information, go to the link for Israel Contemporary Players on the Links page. Looking forward to seeing you there. By the way, the Composition department at the Buchman-Mehta School of Music, University of Tel Aviv, have asked me to be guest lecturer, on the subject of my works on Wednesday 15th March. I look forward to meeting the students today at the same University where I studied composition. Thanks to all those who made it to the performance of my jazz trio at the Tel Aviv Jazz Festival. We had a great time and so apparently did the audience. We received some outstanding reviews - go to the reviews page, photos from the performance in the photo gallery. 12/02/06 Latest news - have been asked to perform at the Tel Aviv Jazz Festival with my trio featuring Danny Benedict on drums and Ora Boazson-Horev on Contrabass. We will be playing numbers from the disc "Journey to Gythia" and some standards, appearing on Friday 17th February. If you live in Israel, we look forward to seeing you there. My friends have told me that the standard composer biography seems a little impersonal, so I thought it might be nice to paste up a ‘composer’s blog’. We’ll call it a ‘news’ page where I can keep you up to date with recent events. In this format I might express my ideas about being a composer in the 21st century, composition in general, and you name it – ‘life’. A composer’s greatest problem is time. Not only do we deal in sound/time but composition itself requires time to get it right. If you don’t earn your living through composition then you probably also teach or perform, reducing the amount of time you may devote to composition. In the computer age the composer is also publisher and promoter. These tasks also require time and resources. When you think about it, Composition can be a solitary pastime. You sit alone and write music and hope that sometime in the future some ‘body’, whether it be orchestra or chorus, string quartet or pianist, is going to play your music. Is your aim self-expression, or communication, or both? Somewhere or at sometime, a listening public must figure in the equation. I decided that my most recently completed work: “Music for Eight Instruments” would be the last speculative piece I would write. Maybe this determination created some good karma for this work, and it has been programmed to be performed in March by Israel’s best contemporary music ensemble – The 21st Century Ensemble. (see links page). Yet now, I find myself writing a work for Symphony Orchestra once again without any immediate prospect of it being played. This internet site is one step in addressing this problem. Here I hope you will be able to get to know me and some of my music. Here I will try to be supportive of my colleagues and enthuse about concerts that I have heard. I think that links to other composers’ and performers’ webpages are important. Please let me know if you have a link you would like to exchange with me. I would be very happy to receive feedback from you by email, regarding the site, my works and recordings. Scores are available from three of the links: The Australian Music Centre and my publishers: The Israel Music Institute and The Israel Music Centre. Recordings will be available soon, please have patience while we set up the e-commerce connections. In the meantime, it is always possible to email a request directly to me. I recently attended a concert at the Music Academy of Tel Aviv University given by the Belgian chamber group - Ictus. The work “Pure” for cello and live-elecronics revealed their young resident composer Cedric Dambrain to have a very sensitive ear for sounds and effects. Enjoy my webpages and please contact me with your thoughts and comments.     John Bostock   page 1 of 1