Watford proud

I'm very pleased to see my good friend Matt Eckland featured in the Watford Observer this week, following his win with the Spitfires at the ITF.

Sackbuts at the Proms

Gone are the days it seems when we'd see a group like Philip Jones Brass Ensemble or Grimethorpe Colliery Band given a Prom to themselves. But all is not lost - this Wednesday John Eliot Gardner is conducting a late night Prom featuring the vocal and instrumental music of late renaissance Venice. Doing the honours are the Monteverdi Choir and His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts.

I'll certainly be wandering to the RAH to hear some nice Gabrieli played on sackbuts and cornetts - what a bargain at £5! See you there hopefully :-)

Les Neish in London

Rising tuba star Les Neish is playing a free lunchtime recital in London next month, following on from his win at the Royal Over-Seas League in February. Hotbrass interview with Les is here.



Wednesday 30th August, 1.10pm
St James’s Church Piccadilly, London
Royal Overseas League Prizewinner Recital
Leslie Neish tuba
Malcolm Forbes-Peckham piano

Huw Morgan recital

Following the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in April, the BBC has arranged Wigmore Hall recitals for the winners of each of the instrumental categories. This of course includes Manchester-based trumpet player Huw Morgan, who has recently announce his programme for this November concert.

Thursday 2 Nov 2006 1.00 PM
BBC Young Musician of the Year Wigmore Series
Huw Morgan (trumpet)

Johann Friedrich Fasch Trumpet Concerto
Maurice Ravel Kaddisch from 'Deux mélodies hébraïques'
George Enescu Légende
Toru Takemitsu Paths for solo trumpet
Jean Françaix Sonatine
Gershwin/Turrin Someone To Watch Over Me
Luke Burke New work
Bellini/Arban Variations on a theme from Bellini's 'Norma'

£8 students £6
Wigmore Hall

The BBC Young Musician of the Year Wigmore Series concludes with a virtuoso display from brass finalist Huw Morgan. In a programme which covers baroque style, jazz standards and a world première Huw shows what a versatile and totally natural performer he is.

Full details here.

Karaoke at the Royal Opera

Recently the Royal Opera House broadcast Turandot on a giant screen in the Covent Garden piazza for all to see and hear. With the massive interest that these events garner from the general public, the ROH was quick to make even more use of the opportunity. Before the screening, the chorus master coached the audience on how to sing the famous tenor aria Nessun Dorma.

What a fun idea - take it down a third and we can all have the fun of belting out "Vincero!" like Pavarotti. I wondered if the same would work for a trombone performance.

With the ITF later this week, perhaps there will be an opportunity for a top pro to give some insight into how to play the Gordon Jacob concerto in a pre-performance workshop? Take a couple of the themes from the opening movement down a 3rd and get a room full of grade 5 kids playing them along to a piano together. Then see Phil Harrison rattle them off effortlessly in the big concert.

What about doing it with the Tuba Mirum before a Mozart Requiem concert? There are enough of these going in this anniversary year...

Well it beats clapping games and improvising basic riffs - the usual sort of drivel that animateurs tend to do with kids this days in pursuit of getting kids interested in classical music.

75 million years of brass playing

When was the first brass instrument played?

Of course there is the trumpet found in the tomb of King Tut - Tutankhamun, dating it about 1300 BC. It's possible the Egyptians were using these bronze, silver and gold instruments from 2500 BC:


As most people know, a "brass" instrument is really a "lip-reed" instrument, (excluding those saxophone things ;-) ) and so you have to consider early man's playing of conch shells, animal horns, didjeridoos and other naturally occuring horns. John Kenny postulates that early man believed that the sounds produced from blowing raspberries into conch shells was a religious experience.


But perhaps the question about earliest brass playing precedes man itself. It seems that 75 million years ago there was a dinosaur with a trumpet-like instrument made out of hollow bone on its head! Read all about the Parasaurolophus and hear what the scientists think it sounded like here.