Amati Institute of Music

05/08/2026

'For a brief period, music ceased feeling like a problem to solve and became instead a way of being alive alongside other people'

Violinist Hector Scott shares what a summer in rural Vermont taught him about performance, perfectionism and why musicians sometimes need to escape the institutions that trained them. Link in comments 🎻

📷 Maksim Selin/Getty

09/05/2026

Control is often at the centre of perfecting one's playing, though it can lead to counterproductive micro-management, explains violinist Hector Scott. Instead, an approach based on language, metaphors and inner narratives can lead to better technical and expressive outcomes. Link in the comments

07/01/2026

'The true importance of music does not lie primarily in its capacity to entertain, distract, or provide comfort, but in its unique ability to create a space in which human beings can explore meaning'

Hector Scott explores sound, nature and the human search for purpose, from Mozart to Viktor Frankl. Link in comments 🎻

07/11/2025

'In the pursuit of musical excellence, we have neglected artistic excellence'

Violinist Hector Scott argues for the embrace of the creative exchange of ideas in music education, rather than a repetitive replicated approach that avoids innovation. Link in comments 🎻

02/11/2025

A little glimpse at our most recent chamber music session! 🎶

02/11/2025

‘Knowing about music can never be a satisfactory substitute for the living reality of musical experience.’ John Paynter.

30/09/2025

Cellophane, black card, paint pens and stencils! Vivaldi’s Winter provided the inspiration for exploring an emotive narrative in stained glass. The children were encouraged to select colours that represented the emotion of the work as they heard it and to narrate a story in stencilled images.

30/09/2025

The brilliant Susan Hamilton joined us for our first Saturday session of chamber music and art! The children responded so naturally to Susan’s melodic voice and positive energy as she encouraged them all in finding their singing voices. 🎶

Susan is a Scottish soprano focusing on Baroque and contemporary music. She was the co-founder and formerly artistic director of the Dunedin Consort.

08/04/2025

08/04/2025

“How profoundly, and sadly, true it is that we do not study other people, to learn to recognise what is objectively there, in them. We approach them, as we approach other aspects of life, with the blinkers
of our cliches. And our feelings about them are inevitably as limited to superficial generality as the possibility of our understanding them. It is one of the main contributions of the arts to encourage the
progressive integrity of vision, which will give a correlative integrity of feeling.” David Best, The Dangers of Aesthetic Education