AROUND THE REGIONS

Midlands

BTS Midlands Trombone Day with Dr. Brett Baker, Chris Binns, & The Black Dyke Trombone Ensemble

Saturday 27 November. The day dawned on a white and windy world, as Storm Arwen made the Peak District, and Buxton in particular, aware of its presence. Snow lay round about, deep and slushy and uneven. The whole event was in some doubt, as people were snowed in, snowed out, with power cuts in places, and roads in and out of Buxton closed for several hours.

Unable to fight the weather the organizer, BTS Midlands representative Jenny Gartside, had to delay the start until midday. Unfortunately, there were a few participants who didn’t make it due to the weather, and some very early bird arrivals who were taken in and given tea by local trombonist Barbara until the day could get under way.

Christ Church, Burbage, eventually saw Dr. Brett Baker begin the day by organizing players into a trombone choir and, after some warm-up exercises, we played some four-part pieces, then launched into ten, twelve, fourteen and sixteen-part pieces.

Black Dyke Trombone Ensemble, performing for the first time as a sextet, included Brett Baker, Paul Woodward, Dan Eddison, Garry Reed, Adrian Hirst and Adam Reed, then entertained the attendees with a spirited version of Wilfred Heston’s Praise, a modern spiritual called Wave, a spot-on version of Deep River, and an intricately extended version of Scarborough Fair called Back To The Fair.

Chris Binns, Solo Trombone with Grimethorpe Band, provided a recital filled with pieces for unaccompanied trombone. Fanfare by John Kenny, Sarabande from J. S. Bach’s Cello Suite no. 4, No. 9 from Tommy Pederson’s Advanced Etudes and Improvisation by Enrique Crespo were executed confidently by a master of his art.

The trombone choir then reassembled to practice Procession of the Nobles, (brilliant choice for massed trombones!) conducted by one of the Black Dyke trombonists, Paul Woodward.

After another tea and cake break, provided by Jenny and Barbara, who are both members of nearby Burbage Band (Buxton), we watched and heard some young players from the Yorkshire and East Midlands Youth Bands being put through their recital paces by Chris Binns. One had an upcoming RNCM audition and had the benefit of feedback from Chris Binns in front of a live audience, another amazing benefit to come from this kind of event, and we wish him the very best with his audition!

PHOTO CREDIT: JENNY GARTSIDE

After a final massed trombone choir to round off proceedings, Brett Baker thanked Jenny for organising the day, the first live BTS event since the pandemic (and Jenny’s first as a BTS Rep) and then home, some being pushed out of the frozen and snowy car park by massed trombone assistance. Very satisfactory day, lots of happy faces, and re-inspired trombonists.

BEV NORMAN

North-East

Here in the North-East we are pleased to report that musical activity seems to be returning to some sort of normality. We know that orchestras in Tyneside, Sunderland, Durham, and Teesside have started to meet and plan concerts and that brass bands, big bands, wind bands and youth ensembles across the region are playing again and giving concerts. We know that BTS members are involved in all this and very pleased to be doing so. We were also pleased to learn that one of our members, Laura Davison, a freelance player on Tyneside has recently joined the Centre of Advanced Training teaching staff, working on the popular and prestigious programmes based at The Sage Gateshead. As for our own BTS event in the region, we are beginning to think about something for Spring 2022 – we’ll keep you all informed.

PETER CHESTER & DAVID THORNBER – BTS NORTH-EAST REPRESENTATIVES

East Anglia

DISS-LOCATED BONES ARE BACK!

Diss-located Bones returned to rehearsals in September, meeting every six weeks in Haughley, Stowmarket. Rehearsals are open to players of all standards, just bring your trombone/s, a music stand, a beer mat, any trombone ensemble music you may have, and a contribution to the hire of the hall. Don’t forget to leave time to come for a buffet curry in Haughley after the meet.

New members are welcome, if you would like to join, please follow this link to be added to the mailing list. The next rehearsal is Sunday 19 December, 1.00pm – 3.00pm, and gigs are being booked for next year.

Haughley is pretty much in the centre of East Anglia – about one hour drive from Chelmsford, Norwich or Cambridge. The hall is three minutes from J49 on the A14. There is plenty of parking space and lifts can be arranged from Stowmarket Station.

Past members of Diss-located Bones include Tony Parsons, founding Editor of The Trombonist, and Edmund Fivet CBE, ex-Principal of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

MIKE TATT

Yorkshire

Skelmanthorpe Band recently played host to the first Yorkshire Trombone Day led by Brett Baker and members of the Black Dyke Trombone Ensemble. The event was sponsored by Michael Rath Trombones.

Twenty-six delegates from far and wide, including Switzerland and Norway descended on Skelmanthorpe to enjoy a full programme of masterclasses and ensemble activities. The delegates were split into groups according to ability and performed pieces such as La Danza, Amazing Grace and Mid all the Traffic, all skilfully transcribed by Ian Jones.

A lunchtime concert featured the Black Dyke quartet which led to delegates being invited to play along with the group to gain ensemble experience. Tim Sidwell from Rath Trombones then led a demonstration on Instrument Maintenance with delegates being given opportunities to try out the latest range of Rath Trombones. The day concluded with a performance to family and friends.

Brett Baker commented ‘After the best part of two years without any trombone ensemble workshops, it was wonderful to once again work with an enthusiastic group of musicians, there were a lot of new faces, having players taking part from Norway, Switzerland, London, the North-East of England and the Midlands for the first ever Yorkshire Trombone day. I am already planning for next year’s event’

I was delighted with the number of delegates and received the following feedback …

‘A big “Thank you” to you and all those responsible for the Trombone Day yesterday at the magnificent Skelmanthorpe Band room. I really enjoyed the content of the day and look forward to a further event next year.

‘I learnt a lot being a trombone novice. Many thanks go to my tutor Adrian for his patient explanations as to how I could improve.’

‘Thanks to the players from Black Dyke Band and all at Skelmanthorpe Band – they were fantastic.’

Plans are already in place for a 2022 event with an evening concert added to an already busy programme.

MIKE HEARTFIELD

– ORGANISER/MD SKELMANTHORPE BAND

PHOTO CREDIT: MIKE HEARTFIELD

Northern Ireland

There has been a wealth of musical activity in Northern Ireland in 2021! In June the recently appointed principal trombone of the Ulster Orchestra Neil Gallie performed a sparkling rendition of Lars-Erik Larsson’s Trombone Concertino in a programme entitled ‘Imagined Worlds’ alongside works by Rautavaara, Nielsen and Sibelius. In November Peter Moore travelled back to his homeland to give another rendition of the awardwinning trombone concerto by Dani Howard, again with the Ulster Orchestra.

The busiest musicians here have definitely been our wonderful brass banders; in October the Marketplace Theatre in Armagh hosted the first live brass band contest since March 2020 with Roger Webster adjudicating works by George Lloyd, Philip Sparke and Christopher Bond. Congratulations to all the bands that performed in what was a great day of music making! The next contests planned are the Brass Band League Solos and Ensembles in February, Brass in Concert entertainment contest in March and to finish off the season the Spring Festival in May. The 1st Old Boys band are travelling to Perth to compete at the Scottish Open contest after a successful visit in 2019.

At the time of writing the young trombonists are practising Scheherazade and Smetana’s Sarka for their Ulster Youth Orchestra (UYO) auditions in December. After two very successful online courses in 2021 (see below) the fantastic team at UYO are planning for a residential course in August 2022 in the beautiful setting of Antrim’s Greenmount College.

I have made some enquiries with venues and spoken to the local musicians here about hosting a BTS event in Northern Ireland and we have exciting plans, please keep an eye on the BTS social media for more information!

NATHAN MOORE

– BTS NORTHERN IRELAND REPRESENTATIVE

On the 16 August 2021 the 28th Ulster Youth Orchestra Summer Course began. Unfortunately, five of the six

UYO TROMBONE SECTION; L-R PATRICK CREAGH, OWEN BRANNIGAN, JAMIE CADDEN, ANDREW MILLIGAN. PHOTO CREDIT: UYO

days of the course had to take place online on zoom, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic but we had the final day, Saturday, to look forward to, where we would all meet and spend a day of playing together. As the second trombonist I spent two hours each of the five days in an online sectional with Andy Berryman as the tutor as well as assistant help from George Sandford and Nathan Moore, my own teacher! Despite the difficulties of online playing, I developed skills and knowledge about the trombone and learnt better ways to practice skills such as lip trills and tonguing. A pleasant atmosphere in these meetings as well as evening entertainment every other day meant the entire course was very enjoyable. The real fun began when we met in person to play through and develop our two pieces, Sibelius’ Symphony No. 1 and Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto (the 2nd movement). Although the trombones were not playing in the Shostakovich, I found listening to this very moving. The Saturday rehearsal was one of the few times I’d been playing with a group of people never mind an entire orchestra since the pandemic began although, luckily, I’d had rehearsals with the 1st Old Boys Brass Band since June 2021 but for many others, including our conductor, David Brophy, this was a first in almost two years.

Despite a shaky beginning, due to people not even used to playing with others, everyone quickly settled and worked hard to achieve a successful final performance at the end of the day. Although I hope next year the course will be fully in person, the UYO 2021 course has no doubt improved me as a player. It is just so great to be able to play together again.

OWEN BRANNIGAN

– ULSTER YOUTH ORCHESTRA ◆