Letter: Open your ears, open your mind, and listen to something new

MUSIC IS healthier than ever. There is an abundance of talent that may one day have the lasting resonance and impact of the old masters. I have in recent months heard new compositions by Robert Saxton, John Woolrich, Dierdre Gribbin and Malcolm Singer that have profoundly touched and moved their audience.

We should ask instead, is contemporary critical writing dead? That we have problems in funding our home-grown talent is assisted by myopic criticism that is not about what is happening now but what has gone before. Music, as with any contemporary art development, will strive to break new ground. In doing so it needs open ears and minds. Ignore these barers of doom and buy into the idea of the new and unknown. It will pleasurably surprise you.

David Gryn

London SW9