The Royal Academy of Music Trombone Choir will be presenting a free lunchtime concert on Friday 16 June.

The RAM Trombone Choir directed by Bob Hughes, who were awarded Runner-up in this year’s Emory Remington Trombone Choir Competition will be featuring music from five centuries. Listeners at Regent Hall will be treated to a feast of classics from the trombone ensemble repertoire.

Friday 16 June
1.00pm
Regent Hall, Oxford Street, London W1
Free, no tickets required

Royal Academy of Music Trombone Choir
Bob Hughes director

This programme, covering five centuries of trombone music, will include:
Gabrieli Canzon Septimi Toni No. 2
Massaino Canzon 33 for eight trombones
Beethoven Drei Equali
Bruckner arr. Sauer Motet: Virga Jesse
Holst arr. Friedman Dance of the Spirits of the Earth from ‘The Perfect Fool’
Derek Bourgeois Scherzo Funèbre

Ian Bousfield

presents

Great Virtuosi of the Nineteenth Century

With:
Wilfried Hedenborg (violin)
Izumi Goto (piano)

Hear the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s principal trombone take on the virtuoso classics by Arthur Pryor and Nicolò Paganini in a recital at a bargain rate exclusively to BTS members. In this special concert, Bousfield will be joined by his orchestral colleague violinist Wilfried Hedenborg with some special arrangements of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Die Fledermaus by Vienna’s very own Johann Strauss.

Saturday 3 June 2006 at 7.30pm
Duke’s Hall, Royal Academy of Music, London

Tickets £5 (BTS Members £3) available from the Box Office, by quoting BTS Offer. Telephone 020 7873 7300

Ian Bousfield (trombone) and Wilfried Hedenborg (violin), members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra with reputations for stunning technical ability, present music by the virtuosi Nicolò Paganini and Arthur Pryor, and some lighter operetta.

Programme includes:
Paganini Caprice no 24, ‘Moses’ Fantasy, Duo merveille, La Streghe;
Pryor Annie Laurie, The Patriot, Petite Suzanne, The Blue Bells of Scotland;
Mozart Die Zauberflöte;
Strauss Die Fledermaus.

Scottish contemporary trombone star John Kenny will perform in Corsham Festival (near Bath) next month. His first appearance is in a lunchtime lecture recital on the 2000-year old brass instrument of war: the carnyx. This is followed by a late night concert featuring a collaboration with oboe/percussion duet New Noise in a varied mix of classical, electronic, jazz and contemporary music.

Thursday 22 June, 1pm
St Aldhelm’s Church, Pickwick Road, Corsham, Wiltshire

John Kenny brings an unusual instrument into the limelight: the carnyx – a replica of a 2,000-year-old Celtic war horn excavated near Fochabers in Aberdeenshire. Its baleful, ancient sound has moved composers of today to write new works incorporating its unique voice.

Thursday 22 June, 10pm
Hartham Church, Hartham Park, Hartham, near Corsham, Wiltshire

Janey Miller oboe
Joby Burgess percussion
John Kenny carnyx/trombone

Matthew Fairclough Sound
Iannis Xenakis Dmaathen
Dobrinka Tabakova Frozen River Flows
John Kenny Voice of the Carnyx
Ian Willcock For the Republic
Emily Hall Join
Burgess/Fairclough/Kenny/Miller Nowhere House

Tickets to each event £5.50
Box office 0845 458 0797
http://www.corshamfestival.org.uk

Brett Baker is forming a trombone ensemble of brass band trombonists from across the country. It is just one part of a new drive to expand the reach of the British Trombone Society in the brass band movement, spear-headed by the famous solo trombonist of the Black Dyke Band and Vice-President of the BTS.

All trombonists at the Cambridge Masters International Championships on 28th May are encouraged to drop by the BTS stand to meet with Brett who is keen to hear your views on how the society can be more proactive in the brass band movement between 10am and 4pm. At 4pm there will then be a brief meeting for all that can make it with the aim of setting up a Brass Band Developmental Team within the BTS.

Brett aims to invite leading players in the movement to take part in a trombone ensemble that will then play at a recital in Birmingham Symphony Hall as part of the International Trombone Festival along with the Black Dyke Trombone Quartet at lunch time on Saturday 22nd July. In addition Brett is aiming to create a trombone ensemble of brass band trombone players throughout the country that can play at future BTS events.

Anyone that would like to get involved in the Developmental Team, e-mail Brett via his website.

Boasting the largest professional brass section in London, the Royal Opera House have used their forces to assemble a large brass ensemble for some outstanding concerts in recent years. And this year, the Royal Opera House Brass Soloists will be directed by Eric Crees in a celebration of the Royal Ballet’s 75th birthday.

The concert on 4 June 2006 in the beautiful Floral Hall in Covent Garden will feature Crees’ new arrangement of Sir Arthur Bliss’s ballet score Checkmate. This is complemented by the classic arrangement of Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet by former ROH principal trumpet Paul Archibald.

He won an Oscar for the film score to The Bridge on the River Kwai, but as Sir Malcolm Arnold celebrates his 85th birthday, interest in his concert music is strong and continues to grow. This concert includes the monumental Symphony for Brass Instruments written for Philip Jones.

While the concert features a piece about a game of chess, another most unlikely concept is a ballet about an outlaw of the Wild West, but Crees’ arrangement of Copland’s Billy the Kid will surely provide a stirring opening.

Sunday 4 June 2006, 3.00pm
Venue: Floral Hall, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London

Tickets: £8 (£5 students and ROH Access List)

Håkan Hardenberger and Jonas Bylund performed a successful premiere of a British double concerto for trumpet, trombone and orchestra in 2004, and London concert goers will get its chance to hear it this autumn. The Swedish brass stars will bring Piers Hellawell’s Cors de chasse to the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 10 October 2006 in an all-British programme played by the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Tuesday 10 October 2006, 7:30pm
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Elgar In the South (Alassio)
Piers Hellawell Cors de chasse
Walton Violin Concerto
Elgar Cockaigne

Philharmonia Orchestra
Martyn Brabbins conductor
Håkan Hardenberger trumpet
Jonas Bylund trombone
Matthew Trusler violin

Next week sees the launch of a new sackbut project involving London’s music colleges. Directed by young professional Emily White, the London Intercollege Sackbut Ensemble will make their debut in a concert featuring the renaissance/baroque trombone in the special acoustic of the Old Naval College Chapel in Greenwich.

Sackbut players from Trinity College, Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music and Guildhall will be joined by cornetts, soprano and organ.
May 16th 1pm

London Intercollege Sackbut Ensemble
Emily White Director

Old Naval College Chapel
Trinity College of Music , Greenwich
Admission free

Music by Schütz, Buonamente, Massiano and Mathew Locke

Matthew Guilford, bass trombonist in the National Symphony Orchestra, who has already brought us interviews with bass trombonists Douglas Yeo and Alastair Sinclair in recent weeks, now contributes an interview with one of the most highly respected bass trombonists to have graced the stages of London concert venues, Bob Hughes. Bob speaks of his illustrious past in the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra, as well as his recent suffering from Task Specific Focal Dystonia, which has unfortunately led him to resign his position in the LSO in the last few weeks. Read the interview with Bob Hughes on Matt Guilford’s weblog.

Michael Rath is running his third brass instrument repair and maintenance course from Saturday 26 to Monday 28 August. Billed as “a unique opportunity to gain an insight into the some of the secrets of one of the world’s leading trombone manufacturers and an acknowledged expert in the field”, complete beginners to experienced professionals
will discover new methods and techniques in trombone repair.

Topics will include:

• Introduction and guided tour of the workshop
• Principles and techniques of trombone repair
• Tooling and machinery techniques
• Slide servicing and repair
• Valve maintenance and servicing (including traditional, Thayer and Hagmann valve sections)
• Soldering techniques
• Dent repair and removal
• Drawing and bending of components
• Polishing, finishing and lacquering

For further details, see the Rath Trombones website.

Since the formation of Sacrae Symphoniae two years ago, the Midlands have been treated to a selection of sackbut and cornett concerts. There is another opportunity to hear this young professional early music group on 19th May which will include duets for cornett and sackbut along with some larger works involving the whole group.

Rush Hour Concert
Friday 19th May 2006, 6.00pm
Upper Cloister Hall at Birmingham Oratory
Tickets: £5/3 available on the door

Sacrae Symphoniae
Helen Roberts, cornetto
Claire McIntyre, alto & tenor sackbuts
Chris Hickman, alto & tenor sackbuts
Pete Jay, tenor sackbut
Andrew Clennell, bass sackbut
joined by Bridget Cunningham, harpsichord