Strings masterclass with Professor Matthew Jones

Professor Matthew Jones is running a strings masterclass at the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities on Monday 2 November, and it's an open session, so you can just turn up and watch. The Faculty of Music at the University of Oxford is behind it, and the whole thing is set up as an open door into the creative process: Jones works closely with musicians on selected repertoire, and you get to see how he builds a piece from the inside out.

It's not a performance in the usual sense. Instead of a finished concert, you're watching the work that goes into it. Jones opens up the things that usually happen behind closed doors—questions of technique, how to interpret a phrase, the way musicians communicate with each other, and how to get a particular musical expression across. If you've ever wondered how a professional actually shapes a piece of music, this is exactly that.

Jones is a heavy hitter in the field: he's Professor of Viola and Head of Chamber Music at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, so he spends his days teaching and leading some of the best young string players in the country. Bringing that experience to a public session in Oxford gives you a look at how he works with musicians in real time.

The afternoon is split into two parts. The masterclass runs from 1pm to 4pm, and then Jones stays on from 4pm to 5pm for a question and answer session with the audience. It's free to attend and there's no registration required, so you can drop in for the whole thing or just the Q&A. The venue is the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, in the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter on Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6GG.