NEWS

THE NEWS

BY BARNEY MEDLAND New President and BTS Committee changes The BTS is delighted to announce Simon Minshall as the new President of the British Trombone Society. To Matthew Gee, the previous President, Simon offered ‘a huge thank you’ for his ‘leadership of our society over the last two years and during such uncertain times.’ We are pleased to report that Matthew will be remaining a member of the Committee.

Simon is taking over leadership of the BTS at a time when we all hope the worst effects of the coronavirus pandemic are behind us and we can look forward to many in-person gatherings and live events. In his message to BTS members, Simon said: ‘trombones sound better in a group, and we are hoping to run some fantastic events in the very near future for you to attend and take part in, so please keep an eye out on the website.’

The other Committee changes are: Tom Lees (Chairman), Matt Gee (Vice-Chairman), Jane Salmon (Treasurer), and Jon Stokes (Vice-President). Thank you to Emily Watson for everything she has done for the BTS as she steps down from the Committee.

British Trombone Festival 2022 The BTS is delighted to announce that the first biennial British Trombone Festival will take place over the weekend of 29–30 October 2022, at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

Ivors Composer Awards Nominations for Alex Paxton Composer and trombonist Alex Paxton has scooped several nominations at this year’s Ivors Composer Awards. Each year the Ivors Academy presents Ivor Novello Awards for exceptional songwriting and composing. The awards are recognised as a pinnacle of achievement for composers and songwriters. The Ivors Composer Awards, in association with BBC Radio 3, are the awards for composers of classical and jazz music.

Bye and Corncrack Dreams are both nominated in the Jazz Composition category and Sometimes Voices, for keyboard and drums, has been nominated for the award in the Small Chamber Composition category. The winners of the awards will be announced at an awards ceremony at the British Museum on 8 December.

Readers may be interested in our interview with Alex Paxton published in the Spring 2021 edition The Trombonist.

RPS Award for Dani Howard In June, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, with Peter Moore as soloist, premièred Dani Howard’s Trombone Concerto (you can read our review of the concert here). Both the piece and the performance were widely praised by critics, with The Times hailing the concerto an ‘instant classic’.

Dani Howard has been awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Large Scale Composition Award, ‘for an outstandingly imaginative and engaging largescale work receiving its first UK performance’. The RPS judges said: ‘Dani Howard’s captivating, cinematic Trombone Concerto is the sort of jewel that’s created when an orchestra – in this case, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic – makes a longstanding commitment to a composer. She writes intuitively for them, and equally for star soloist Peter Moore, brilliantly, sensitively calling upon all his virtuosity. Here is a much-needed new masterpiece for the

trombone, sure to attain a lasting place at the heart of its repertory.’ Many congratulations to Dani for this award, and for writing such an important addition to the trombone repertoire.

New concerto première in San Francisco There is another significant addition to the trombone repertoire, in the form of a major new concerto. Timothy Higgins, principal trombone with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, premièred his new Trombone Concerto with the orchestra on 18 November. After a year-long delay, caused by the pandemic, the performance took place under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas, at the Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. A major première of a new work for trombone is always an exciting event, particularly when performed by world-class musicians of this calibre.

Slide Action announced as 2021–22 Britten Pears Young Artist Trombone quartet Slide Action have been selected as Britten Pears Young Artists for the 2021–22 season. They are one of two chamber groups on the programme and the only wind or brass players selected.

As Britten Pears Young Artists, the quartet will make regular trips to perform at the Snape Maltings Concert Hall, home of the Britten Pears Foundation. They will also benefit from coaching and masterclasses from top musicians and leading industry professionals. The accolade cements Slide Action’s place as one of Britain’s most exciting young chamber groups and will help further their commitment to advancing the repertoire and recognition of the trombone quartet.

For more information about Slide Action, you can read the feature The Trombonist ran on them last year.

Death of Slide Hampton Slide Hampton, legendary American jazz trombonist and Grammy Award winning composer and arranger, died on 18 November, aged 89.

Born to a musical family in Indianapolis in 1932, Hampton showed gifted musicianship from a very young age, singing and dancing with the family band. In a 2007 interview for America’s National Endowment for the Arts, he said ‘I was hearing music every day from the time that I was born, so I knew right away that my life would be in music.’ He began trombone at the age of 12, because ‘the band needed a trombone, and I was the youngest.’ This turned out to be fortuitous, as Hampton soon developed extraordinary dexterity on the instrument and a warm tome. ‘[The trombone] has to use the beauty of its sound to make a point,’ he told the New York Times in 1982.

For sixty years, Hampton worked at the pinnacle of the jazz world. The Guinness Encyclopaedia of Popular Music calls Hampton’s career as one of the most distinguished in all jazz. He played alongside, composed and arranged for the likes of Duke Ellington, Maynard Ferguson, and Dizzy Gillespie. He lectured at Harvard, and led on many solo albums, including his famous debut Slide Hampton’s Horn of Plenty. In 2005, the National Endowment for the Arts bestowed Slide Hampton with its highest honour in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award.

Hampton was a voracious practiser throughout his life, working around his composing and arranging commitments to practise three or four hours a day. According to his son Lamont Hampton, who confirmed his father’s death, Slide Hampton was still practising two days before his death.

New drive to address gender imbalance in brass instruments A new initiative aimed at encouraging young girls, women, and non-binary people to take up brass, percussion, and other ‘large and shiny instruments’ and to view them as a viable career path has launched. Gender and the Large and Shiny Instruments has been founded by percussionist Beth Higham-Edwards and horn player Letty Stott, with the launch event held at the Royal Oversees League in London on 22 November. Jane Salmon (BTS Treasurer and former editor of this magazine) and Helen Vollam (Principal Trombone BBC Symphony Orchestra) performed at the event.

The founders point out, for example, that women occupy only 7% of professional trombone chairs in Britain (as of 2019). They hope to address this imbalance, by, among other things, promoting positive role models to young girls. As the founders say: ‘it is extremely important to show children and young people that there are professional musicians working in this sector at the highest level look like them!’

Correction In the last edition of The News, we incorrectly said Chris Augustine was leaving Welsh National Opera to play in the West End show Wicked, he has in fact left to play in Frozen. Apologies to Chris for this error. ◆