London’s most famous cornett and sackbut ensemble will be performing in a free concert with the BBC Singers this April. His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts feature sackbut players Adam Woolf, Abigail Newman and Stephen Saunders and can be seen in action in a video clip (MPEG, 17MB).

Friday 5 May 2006, 2pm
Ticket prices: FREE (subject to availability). Contact BBC Studio Audiences on 020 8576 1227
St Giles’ Cripplegate, Fore Street, London

A Merrie Noyse

BBC Singers
Fretwork
His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
Peter Phillips conductor

Fretwork and His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts join Peter Phillips and the BBC Singers for a live Radio 3 broadcast which celebrates the glories of Jacobean and Restoration music. An opportunity to hear choral and instrumental works, large and small, by Orlando Gibbons and his contempories.

This Sunday at Shaw Theatre, London, you can hear Paris-based trombonist Benny Sluchin, along with Baritone and Piano. Full details here.

The BTS brings you a special offer - £7.50 per Ticket (half price - usually £15!) - just call the box office.

The ‘jouissance’ (joy!) of Song from Both Sides of the English Channel…

*** T R I O B E L C A N T O ***

Trombonist BENNY SLUCHIN
Baritone ROBERT GILDON
Pianist JEFF COHEN

Sunday 26th March at 7.30 pm.

Box Office: 0870 033 2600

Mon-Fri 10 am to 6 pm
Saturday and Sunday 2pm to 6 pm

This beautiful advert is for a weekend course next month in the Midlands that sackbut players and other early wind instrumenalists may be interested in attending. It is coached by Jamie Savan (cornett) and Adam Woolf (sackbut).

Here is some extra info from Adam Woolf:

The course is designed to cover as many aspects of early wind instrument playing as possible. We cover large and small scale church music - both instrumental and choral - this year I hope to feature a late 16th century mass from Venice and play from original notation in 4 choirs (no previous experience needed!) and probably some Gabrieli canzonas. We will probably also play in the church service with the choir (yet to be finalised).

We also form a renaissance “big band” which last year played from the Castle grounds and this year will play from the balcony of the town hall (in a manner as pictured on the attached flyer!) We also play from the church tower. Participants include players of reed instruments too, so with shawms, crumhorns, sackbuts, cornetts, recorders, dulcians etc, we can mix up the instrumentation. There are also small group activities and, of course, there’s usually a good social atmosphere!

We start in the evening of 28th April in the church in Newark, Notts. with some large scale music followed by a pint or two, Saturday is playing all day rehearsing music for the “performances” on Sunday. Sunday we play in the church, town hall and up the tower.

The identity of the first landmark woman to play trombone in Britian is quite surprising. Helen Vollam at the BBC Symphony has made her mark in the last decade but of course most people are aware of Maisie Ringham’s impact in the Hallé since the 50’s, but would you believe it they were both somewhat preceded by the private trombone passions of Queen Elizabeth I.

According to Trevor Herbert’s new book The Trombone, there is some suprising evidence that suggests that the Virgin Queen obtained a bass trombone for her private usage. Under a list of the Queen’s personal ‘necessaries’ such as clothing, bedding we find:

One greate sackbut provided for the Queens use. £15.0.0.2

H. Nicolas, Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York: Wardrobe Accounts of Edward IV (London: Pickering, 1830), pp 267-8

Chris Houlding will be putting on the fireworks this May for a solo appearance in Durham, performing the blistering Trombone Concerto by Derek Bourgeois. He has been invited by the Durham Sinfonia Orchestra to be guest soloist, which seems a refreshing choice beyond the usual piano or violin soloist, and the credit goes to BTS member Peter Chester for making it happen. The professional conductor will be Philippe Bach, from the Royal Northern College of Music.

Chris Houlding has been Principal Trombone at Opera North since he was 21 and he is also currently Senior Tutor of Trombone at the RNCM. He also recently served a four year term as President of the BTS. In addition to his playing and teaching, Chris is an active conductor and is currently Musical Director for the Slaithwaite Philharmonic Orchestra.

Saturday May 6th 2006, 7.30pm
Durham Cathedral

Bourgeois Trombone Concerto
Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis
Elgar Symphony No. 1 in A flat major

Philippe Bach
Durham Sinfonia Orchestra

Tickets: £12. Concessions £10, full-time students £5, under-16s FREE if accompanied by paying adults. Available in advance from: Durham City Tourist information Centre, 2, Millenium Place, Durham. Tel: 0191 384 3720 (also available on the door)
For more info: contact pm.chester@ntlworld.com.

National Symphony Orchestra bass trombonist Matthew Guilford has published a fascinating interview with his teacher, Boston Symphony Orchestra bass trombonist Douglas Yeo. Doug’s insights into life in the back row of an orchestra are refreshing and worth reading by every trombonist.

My favourite thing to do in the orchestra? Play soft chorales. I love playing softly. Really softly. For me, the most rewarding part of any piece is the moment when I get to play a soft chord with the rest of the low brass section. It may not be moment that has any great musical significance and most people won’t even notice it. But the satisfaction I get from being part of a soft chord is something that I find deeply rewarding, far more rewarding than blowing my head off in some fortissimo passage.

Interview with Douglas Yeo.

The website of the Royal Opera House has an interesting feature on the Thein contrabass trombone it has recently acquired for Keith McNicoll.
Says Keith:

Some time ago, I became aware that I would be required to play a contrabass trombone in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen opera cycle at the ROH. I was immediately excited at the prospect, but it soon dawned on me that my old Alexander contra wouldn’t last five minutes in the orchestra pit - it is far too cumbersome and frail. After some discussion with the management it was agreed that the Royal Opera House should, ideally, own its own contrabass trombone.

Follow Keith McNicoll’s exploits in obtaining a new Thein contrabass trombone for the Royal Opera House in Featured Instruments: The Contrabass Trombone. While you’re about it, don’t forget that you can see Keith in action on the new ROH contrabass trombone in performances of Götterdämmerung on 17, 22, 27, 30 April and 3, 6 May 2006.

Probably the best known American trombonist and Principal of the New York Philharmonic, Joseph Alessi, will be making a rare appearing in Britain this April to premier a new trombone concerto by Bramwell Tovey with the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain, conducted by the composer.

Bramwell Tovey has built his career as a conductor and is currently Musical Director at both the Vancouver Symphony and Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg. In the past few years he has developed his composing too, to acclaim including Best Classical Composition 2003 for his Requiem for a Charred Skull. And with a background in British brass bands, it is no surprise that he was written several pieces for the instruments, including a popular work The Night to Sing for the British Open 2005 and Santa Barbara Sonata for Canadian Brass.

National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain
Conducted by Bramwell Tovey
Soloist: Joseph Alessi
(Principal Trombone - New York Philharmonic Orchestra)

Saturday 15 April 2006, 7.30pm
The Octagon, Yeovil
Seats: £8.00 £10.00 Concessions: £1.00 off

Sunday 16 April 2006, 7.30pm
Weston-Super-Mare, Winter Gardens

Tickets are available by calling 07710 505689 or 01223 234090

National Youth Brass Band

Ian Bousfield will be heard on BBC Radio 3 next week in a performance of Buxton Orr’s lyrical Trombone Concerto. The programme is a broadcast of highlights from the Royal Northern College of Music’s annual Festival of Brass which took place in January. The brass bands heard include Black Dyke, YBS, Brighouse and Rastrick, Fodens (Richardson) and Grimethorpe (UK Coal) Band.

RNCM Festival of Brass 2006
19:00 Wednesday 8th March 2006
BBC Radio 3

Performance on 3
Celebrating Mozart and Landscapes and Images

Petroc Trelawny introduces highlights from a unique event in the brass band calendar. The festival themes of Celebrating Mozart and Landscapes and Images are featured.

Torstein Aagaard-Nilsen: Hommage à W A Mozart (Festival Commission, first performance)
Elgar Howarth: Cornet Concerto
Håkan Hardenberger (cornet)
Grimethorpe (UK Coal) Band
Allan Withington (conductor)

Peter Meechan: Snake Eyes (Festival Commission, first performance)
RNCM Brass Ensemble
James Gourlay (conductor)

Herbert Howells: Pageantry
Brighouse and Rastrick Band
James Gourlay (conductor)

Martin Ellerby: Terra Australis (UK Première)
YBS Band
David King (conductor)

Buxton Orr: Trombone Concerto
Arthur Bliss: Kenilworth
Ian Bousfield (trombone)
Fodens (Richardson) Band
Garry Cut (conductor)

Philip Wilby: Music for the Moving Image (UK Première)
Malcolm Arnold, arr Farr: Four Cornish Dances
Black Dyke Band
Nicholas Childs (conductor)