The Trombonist Summer 2011

SUMMER 2011

A Man of Many Talents

www.britishtrombonesociety.org

LEGEND RANGE

Bb/F Trombone AC440BR To complete its Legend series, Antoine Courtois Paris introduces this new trombone inspired by American instruments from the sixties and seventies.

Equipped with a narrow slide and a red brass bell, the 440 is ensured of a centered tone, while maintaining a warm and round timbre.

Developed in collaboration with orchestral musicians and international soloists.

Technical specifications Key: Bb/F Closed wrap F-attachment Brass narrow slide Red brass bell Ø bore: 13.88 mm (.547’’) Ø bell: 216 mm Deluxe case

Red brass bell

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COVER STORY PRELUDE

Contacts British Trombone Society www.britishtrombonesociety.org Honorary Patron: Gordon Campbell Executive Board President Brett Baker 01606 783869 president@britishtrombonesociety.org Vice-President

Welcome to the summer 2011 issue of

The Trombonist!

There couldn’t be more exciting a time to be a member of the BTS.

Carol Jarvis vicepresident@britishtrombonesociety.org Chair Ben Bouzan eastanglia@britishtrombonesociety.org Secretary Geoff Wolmark 01377 202209 1-3 Church Street, Hutton, Driffield, Yorks, YO25 9PR secretary@britishtrombonesociety.org Treasurer David Carnac treasurer@britishtrombonesociety.org Development Officer Stewart Drummond education@britishtrombonesociety.org Staff Membership Manager Lisa Penn 0844 4457931 membership@britishtrombonesociety.org Webmaster Edward Solomon 07903 152148 webmaster@britishtrombonesociety.org Associate Webmaster Mike Saville webmaster2@britishtrombonesociety.org Please submit news items for the website to David Read: news@britishtrombonesociety.org The Trombonist Editor Stephanie Dyer 07905 188052 editor@britishtrombonesociety.org Publishing and Distribution British Bandsman Advertising Gregan Quick 01933 445474 adverts@britishbandsman.com Design and DTP GK Graphic Design

The society now boasts more events than ever before - at least one Trombone Day per month; and the first ever Annual Awards ceremony will take place later on in the year (see p. 15 for more details) as well as the trombone ensemble recording session and a few social gatherings to attend too (p. 35). A feature on the ever entrepreneurial Denis Wick, who is in the progress of writing his autobiography, forms the centrepiece of this edition; similarly Melodramatic Productions’ founder Matthew Parry outlines new projects but remains reflective (p. 25) as is James McFadyen, a composer who relishes the challenges his forthcoming BTS commission may bring and also discusses his recent work (p. 24).

Star of the Future, Trombonist’s Island Discs and the reviews section return to their popular slots, and the interspersed events pages this time take an interesting twist with a report on the Eastern Trombone Workshop (pp.

16-17) and the Trinity Laban Brass Experience 2011 (p. 28). Diane Drexler, Managing Editor of the International Trombone Association Journal, gives us a wave from across the Atlantic too (p. 29). I’m also pleased to announce that as of 1 May the BTS website (www.britishtrombonesociety.org) is back online, unveiling an impressive new design and technological features. Please continue to ‘like’ the BTS Facebook page and join the BTS Members group, to follow us on Twitter and to subscribe to our RSS feed. And remember – this is your society, so please send in your comments, suggestions or contributions for inclusion in your magazine!

The Trombonist is published quarterly.

Please send any material for review to the Editor.

Representatives Scotland Chris Stearn 01360 860220 scotland@britishtrombonesociety.org

Happy reading,

Stephanie

Stephanie Dyer – Executive Editor, The Trombonist

Wales Arlene MacFarlane 07773 290975 wales@britishtrombonesociety.org North East & Yorkshire Paul Woodward 01924 823840 northeast@britishtrombonesociety.org North West Kerry Baldwin northwest@britishtrombonesociety.org Midlands Ben Henderson Northern Ireland Stephen Cairns 02892 602646 northernireland@britishtrombonesociety.org South Chris Mackey 07758 451146 south@britishtrombonesociety.org South West Tony Evans 01752 263069 southwest@britishtrombonesociety.org East Anglia Ben Bouzan 07970 502509 eastanglia@britishtrombonesociety.org Wessex Bruce Harding 01202 880814 wessex@britishtrombonesociety.org Brass Band Paul Woodward 01924 823840 brassband@britishtrombonesociety.org Jazz Jeremy Price jazz@britishtrombonesociety.org Young People James Howard

Contents 5

President’s Address – Brett Baker

7 News in Brief 8

Gerry McElhone (1925–2011)

11

RNCM Brass Band Focus Day

12

Interview: Guildhall School of Music Trombone Department

15

BTS Annual Awards

16

The Eastern Trombone Workshop

18

Denis Wick: Trombonist, Teacher and Entrepreneur

23

Star of the Future: Ross Johnson

24

The Magic Forest: James McFadyen

25 A Trombonist’s Foray Into Albums of Children’s Stories Set to Classical Music 27

Trombonist’s Island Discs: David Carnac

28

Trinity Laban Brass Experience 2011

29

Trombonists Abroad: From Across the Atlantic

31 Audition Technique 32

Reviews

35

Diary of Events

youngrep@britishtrombonesociety.org

THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011 | PAGE 3

Major coup for Buffet Crampon as RSNO trombones opt for Courtois French-based manufacturer, Buffet Crampon, is celebrating the success of its Courtois brand, which made history in the orchestral world in the autumn of 2009, when the three members of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) trombone section took delivery of their new instruments.

This is believed to be the first time that an entire trombone section in a major UK professional orchestra has opted for the same brand of instruments, and Buffet’s delighted UK representative, Tim Barrett, commented: “Our Courtois AC440 model has been developed specifically for a school of player looking for a traditional American sound, but it offers many of the characteristics of the favourite models of many of our own leading professionals,” adding, “It was developed by Dudley Bright, principal trombone of the London Symphony Orchestra, along with Werner Duwe and our technical team at Amboise in France, and the darker sound that has been achieved harks back to bygone years - something that has been very important to the RSNO’s excellent team of players, who were very keen to try the new instruments when they heard about them.”

Speaking about the instruments, Davur Juul Magnussen (principal trombone since 2008), Alastair Sinclair (principal bass trombone for 16 years) and Lance Green (associate principal and RSNO member for 27 years), the latter enthusing: “It was during a chance meeting with Tim Barrett that I told him we were interested in changing instruments as a section, and he told me that Courtois had just completed the design of an instrument that would meet our needs. After I tried it, I then had to convince Davur and Alastair to do the same, but they were similarly impressed. Since we started using the new models in October 2009, we have been delighted; the slides are brilliant and the whole finish sums up the absolute top quality that Courtois has produced, but the great thing from the section’s point of view is that it is a homogenous set - they all sound the same and are a joy to play.”

Davur Magnussen commented: “The AC440 is an outstanding instrument, which produces a full, rich and dark sound that mixes perfectly with the rest of the orchestra,” while Alastair Sinclair added: “The bass trombone has always provided the biggest obstacle in terms of sound-blending in a section, but any issues regarding this have been overcome by Courtois, and even our principal conductor has commented positively on the difference.”

Courtois AC440 trombones are available in red and yellow brass bell, while the AC550 bass trombone is available in gold or yellow brass.

PAGE 4 | THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011

BoneCOVER of Contention STORY

President’s Address

Summer 2011

Dear Members, Welcome to the Summer 2010 edition of The Trombonist. This year will see the first BTS Annual Awards ceremony, which will take place at the Annual General Meeting in Oundle. The recording of BTS trombone ensembles will also take place on 27 July at Birmingham Conservatoire from 7.30pm, followed by a well-earned BTS curry night on the same evening, and the first ever society dinner for the regional representatives and BTS officers will be held in Birmingham on 30 July. I hope that many of you are also able to join us; please contact Geoff Wolmark, BTS Secretary, to register your interest.

Thank you for your positive feedback on the Spring issue of The Trombonist magazine, and I hope that you like the new-look website that was launched on 1 May. Some great events taking place over the next few months include a workshop in Maidstone, Kent in May; Tiddly Troms, and the RNCM Brass Band Focus Day in June; two events in Leeds in May and July; and the Black Dyke Quartet in Shropshire and the Wessex Trombone Day in September. Of course, I could not forget the East Anglia Trombone Day and AGM in October, which promises to be as successful as ever. A BTS Day takes place almost every month from now on, as you can see! However, please note that the Birmingham Conservatoire event will take place in 2012 at a date to be decided, and this is also the case for Sheffield because of difficulties in securing a venue. Further events still need booking for 2012, so please do get in touch with us for assistance and support with hosting your very own Trombone Day. I have recently returned from travelling in Australia and Brazil, and this has given me the incentive to push for a national event. As a result, the BTS will hold a two-day celebration at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff, 26–27 May 2012. Leading artists from the USA will be invited to attend and I will keep you posted as to our progress. We are delighted that this event will coincide with Christian Lindberg’s visit to the UK; he will be at the RWCMD on 28 May. I am also hoping to hold an event at Birmingham Conservatoire on Saturday 2 June, with artists of a similarly high calibre in attendance.

My very best wishes,

Brett Baker BTS President

THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011 | PAGE 5

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news

Early Brass at the Dartington Summer School David Staff (cornett) and Emily White (sackbutt) are to direct a two-week course for trumpeters and trombonists who are interested in the history, development and playing of the late 17th, 18th and 19th-century trumpet and trombone repertoire. Trumpeters will focus on trumpet ensembles, working without vent holes as much as possible. Trombonists will focus on trombone choir music and will have the opportunity to play period instruments

encompassing 500 years of the instrument’s history. The course caters for amateurs with a range of early music experience - from no experience at all to very accomplished - and is popular with students and young professionals who are interested in the specialism of early brass careers.

For further information and to apply, please visit www.dartington.org/summer-school

Gordon Campbell in Hampshire Alder Valley Brass celebrates its 50th anniversary with a concert featuring Gordon Campbell.

Formerly known as the Aldershot Brass Ensemble, the brass band near the Surrey/Hampshire border was founded by George Prior, a fabulous trombonist from the Rhonda Valley in Wales. Two of his sons (Tony and Lee) went on the play trombone alongside his three other children, who all became founder members of the band.

2.30pm, Sunday 3 July 2011 Anniversary Concert featuring Gordon Campbell,

principal trombone of the BBC Big Band Princes Hall Aldershot Hampshire GU11 1NX Tickets: £10/£8 For further information please visit http://www.princeshall.com/.

The brass ensemble are inviting all people associated with the band over the last 50 years to the event, which promises to be a big reunion celebration.

Lament for the Mystery Trombonists Oh nameless ones, oh ‘Chrises’, oh those without address, Oh woe is us, we know you not, we search in vain for clues, We really do want to send you magazines, to make good the redress, News of events, reminders, and other kinds of news.

So please, we beg you, tell us your full name, your address and also, If you have one, your current email and we will send you what is yours.

Strange as it may seem to most members, when we get the bank statements that tell us that ‘Chris’ has renewed his or her membership to the BTS, we don’t know who you are. Nor can we guess who you are if there is no name with your standing order payment.

And each month, several magazines are returned to the publisher, because the member has not told us their new address.

So we will stop sending magazines if yours is returned and we will treat un-named subscriptions as ‘donations’ - thank you for your gift. But if you want to stay as a fully paid-up member of the BTS, paying the correct subscription, then you know what to do.

With thanks and apologies for the lousy poem,

Geoff Wolmark BTS Secretary

THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011 | PAGE 7

in MEMORIAM

Gerard (Gerry) Majalla McElhone 12 February 1925 – 24 February 2011 It is with great sadness that The Trombonist reports the passing of Gerry McElhone. Ian Fasham, a former pupil of Gerry, looks back on the life and career of the renowned bass trombonist, and remembers the man and his music.

Gerard (Gerry) McElhone and David Chandler in 2007.

Unless you are over a certain age there’s a good chance that the name Gerry McElhone may not mean very much to you. He was, however, one of the great brass players of his generation with a career that spanned 45 years, starting off as a bandsman and ending with his retirement from the orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1990. He was also a very fine teacher, who taught and inspired many of the bass trombone players who are working in the music business today.

Gerry was born in Consett, County Durham, to Irish parents. His working life began as a farmhand, but in 1939 (aged 14) he enlisted as a boy soldier in the Royal Irish Fusiliers based in Omagh, where he soon had a bugle thrust into his hands. It seems he had ambitions to play the saxophone, but fortunately he was persuaded by Evan Watkin to take up the bass trombone.

From 1945-48, the band was attached to the Buffs, and then from 1948-52 he was a member of the Band of the Irish Guards.

On one occasion whilst in the Guards, Gerry was on a charge for a minor offence and was being marched to the Guard House by no less than a Sergeant Haydn (Dai) Trotman. The story goes that as they marched, diaries were being compared so that Dai could cover Gerry’s work while he was

PAGE 8 | THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011

incapacitated!

In the autumn of 1948, Gerry also became a student at the Royal College of Music, where he studied with Morris Smith. According to the archivist at the RCM, he remained on the books as a student until the end of the summer term in 1952, the same year that he left the guards. A likely explanation for this is that at that time, it was very common for bandsmen to have lessons at music colleges, sometimes even paid for by the army.

To make life even more complicated, as well as being a student at the RCM and being in the Irish Guards, in 1950 Gerry also became a member of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, replacing Godfrey Kneller as the bass trombone player. Unfortunately, because he had joined the LPO before his period with the Irish Guards was completed, his only option was to buy himself out.

However, it seems that despite the support of the Musical Director Lt. Col. ‘Jiggs’ Jaeger, the bandmaster wasn’t so keen and so for a while Sir Adrian Boult, the orchestra’s principal conductor, had to put up with his bass trombone player either not being available, or turning up late because of army commitments.

The LPO section at that time was George Maxted (principal), Tony Moore (2nd), and John ‘Tug’ Wilson (tuba). In

1955, there was a change in personnel when Evan Watkin (Gerry’s old army friend) and John Hawling became the 1st and 2nd trombones respectively.

At this time, Gerry was playing the uniquely British G bass trombone, of which he really was a master, and there are some wonderful recordings from this period which, among other things, demonstrate what a wonderful instrument it was in the right hands.

Sadly, from the late 1960s, the instrument became virtually obsolete in the orchestral world.

Gerry left the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1958 and freelanced for the next ten years. He was a regular member of the Sinfonia of London, which was set up to record film scores for Rank Studios under the Direction of Muir Mathieson and Marcus Dods.

The orchestra recorded sound tracks for many black and white films that were to become legendary, like Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. A story that Gerry recounted from that time was that, as very few musicians had telephones, the fixer would drive round on his motorbike and leave a scrap of paper with details of the next dates through the window. No one locked their sash windows in those days!

During this time, Gerry was also doing extra work for the Royal Opera House where Dai Trotman was the

in MEMORIAM bass trombone player. In operas that required four trombones, Gerry would play 3rd while Dai would play the 4th or contrabass trombone part on the G bass trombone. It was at some point during this freelance period that Gerry made the move from the G trombone to the newly designed B flat, F and E Reynolds Contempora. This was quite a groundbreaking thing to do, as many of his contemporaries at that point still continued to play the G trombone.

In 1969, Gerry became a member of the Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden, joining Harold Nash (principal), Dave Chandler (coprincipal), John Edney (2nd), Dai Trotman (bass) and Bob Brookes (tuba).

With the encouragement of Sir Georg Solti, Gerry purchased a contrabass trombone made by Max Enders of Mainz in Germany. This was apparently the first contrabass Max Enders had made, and it’s very likely that Gerry was the first person in this country to play such an instrument. This wonderful beast, which has a single slide, is in F with two independent rotary valves, which put it into E flat,

Haydn (Dai) Trotman and Gerry McElhone, both in Irish Guards uniform.

double B flat, and then a slightly sharp double A flat with both valves down.

The instrument was used mainly for Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen and some of the Puccini operas. Harold Nash, who was the principal trombone at the time, said of the contra: “In due course it arrived, and the lower brass took on a whole new perspective on its visits to Valhalla; and also in some Verdi and Puccini scores. In fact, Gerry’s rendition of the ‘scarpia’ motif

Royal Opera House trombone section in 1964. L-R Frank Stead (assistant orchestra manager), Harold Nash, Haydn (Dai) Trotman, David Chandler, Gerry McElhone (extra player). in Sir Colin’s [Davis’] Tosca recording is legendary not only among musicians, but also amongst HiFi addicts.”

By the time Gerry retired from the Opera House in 1990, various players had come and gone from the section.

At the time of his retirement, the section was Harold Nash and John Iveson (principal), Tom Winthorpe and Dave Chandler (2nd), Dave Petken (bass) and George Wall (tuba).

As well as being a wonderful player, Gerry was also an inspirational teacher, teaching at the Royal College of Music in London from 1972 until the end of the summer term in 1989. The way he taught was seemingly unstructured, perhaps because he himself had very little in the way of formal teaching, and yet somehow he was able to pass on so much knowledge, sometimes I’m sure without even realising.

Lessons would often begin by him asking what you had brought along to play, rather than him having set things each week. He would listen to whatever you had prepared, and then go through it in detail. The whole time his main emphasis was on sound, intonation, and articulation, and of course style. All the things that, in fact, made him such a great player. After that, out would come the orchestral excerpts, which more often than not took up most of the lesson. He had an amazing ability to remember what he had said about a particular excerpt, maybe weeks previously, and if you hadn’t done, or at least tried to do what he had suggested, he would show his displeasure!

One particular thing that he taught was playing legato without using any tongue, even when very long shifts are involved - not unusual for valve players, but much more so for trombonists. It can only be achieved if the slide shifts

are very fast and accurate (without being jerky) and if the air column is continuous. The effect, if it comes off, is the most beautiful legato. He would demonstrate this and anything else he needed to on our instruments, as he very rarely brought his trombone into college. Whatever he played on, he always sounded amazing. Occasionally, to great excitement, he would bring the contra along to lessons, only to bring out the 3rd and 4th trombone parts for Der Ring or some fiendish Verdi opera. The student would then play third whilst Gerry sorted out his contra playing for that work’s impending arrival at the Royal Opera House.

Gerry’s unique personality was always evident when he taught. He very often used the most colourful language, and yet was never offensive. He used a lot of sporting analogies to explain things, for example comparing starting a note to hitting a golf ball, and describing light staccato playing like bouncing a tennis ball. He had a great passion for playing both golf - a hobby he shared with his late wife, Ulla - and also snooker. It was a proud moment when his nephew, Dennis Taylor, became World Snooker Champion in 1985!

I remember having telephone conversations with him years after he retired from playing, and his enthusiasm for music and the business in general was ever infectious, and I would always come away from our conversations feeling uplifted.

Gerry was a great character and also a perfect gentleman (especially when ladies were present). He was much liked and respected by colleagues and pupils - a unique and private man, who will be greatly missed.

Ian Fasham

THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011 | PAGE 9

On the Horizon

SUNDAY 26 JUNE

RNCM BRASS BAND FOCUS DAY in association with the British Trombone Society This year’s Brass Band Focus Day features performances, workshops and masterclasses for the brass band player focusing on practical performance. The day is aimed at Grade 5 standard upwards with morning classes split by ability and the afternoon workshops split by instrument. Tutors this year include John Miller, Roger Webster and Les Neish, and we are delighted to have joined forces with the British Trombone Society to offer a range of specialist trombone classes led by Bob Hughes and Brett Baker, as well as contributions from the Thames, Midland and Black Dyke trombone quartets. We are particularly indebted to the Society for inviting the trombonist Stephen Sykes to perform with the RNCM Brass Band in the day’s closing concert.

RNCM BRASS BAND FOCUS DAY in association with British Trombone Society 10.30am Various venues

2pm Various venue

Morning workshops

Afternoon w

A choice of three morning workshops, including a group coaching session for all players of Grade 8+ standard led by RNCM Director of Brass Studies, John Miller; a coaching session for players Grade 5-7 standard led by Maria Molund; or a trombone ensemble class led by Bob Hughes and Brett Baker.

A choice of four afte including a class for Webster; a class for and tuba players wit trombonists focusing with Bob Hughes; an class with the Black

12pm RNCM Concert Hall

4pm RNCM Concert

Chetham’s School of Music and Junior RNCM Brass Bands

RNCM Brass

Lionel Ritchie (arr Baker) All Night Long Joseph Turrin Hymn for Diana Peter Graham Windows of the World Richard Strauss (arr Banks) Festmusik der Stadt Wien William Walton The First Shoot (Ballet Suite) Modest Mussorgsky (arr Howarth) Baba 2pm Various venues Yaga and The Great Gate of Kiev from Pictures at an Exhibition Afternoon workshops

Nicholas Childs, John Miller artistic directors

10.30am Various venues

RNCM

Morning workshops

Supported by

Chatterton, A choice of three morning workshops, includingDavid AThornton, choice of David four afternoon workshop sessions, conductors Les Neish, Maria Molund a group coaching session for all players of including a class for cornet players with Roger Grade 8+ standard led by RNCM Director of The Chetham’s Webster; and a class for euphonium, Junior RNCM Brasstenor Bandshorn Brass Studies, John Miller; a coaching session give the andday’s tubalunchtime players with Les Neish; a session for concert, coming for players Grade 5-7 standard led by Maria together trombonists on solo or duo at the endfocusing of the programme for arepertoire Molund; or a trombone ensemble class led by massedwith Bob Hughes; andGreat a trombone performance of The Gate ofensemble Kiev.

Bob Hughes and Brett Baker. class with the Black Dyke Quartet.

After the concert, don’t miss music from the Thames and Midland trombone quartets which 12pm RNCM Concert Hall 4pm RNCM Concert Hallfoyer areas. will resound from the RNCM’s

eatures erclasses on practical Grade 5 sses split hops split ude John h, and we with the range of Bob Hughes tions from ke trombone ed to the Stephen rass Band in

stic directors

Chetham’s School of Music and Junior RNCM Brass Bands Lionel Ritchie (arr Baker) All Night Long Joseph Turrin Hymn for Diana Peter Graham Windows of the World Richard Strauss (arr Banks) Festmusik der Stadt Wien William Walton The First Shoot (Ballet Suite) Modest Mussorgsky (arr Howarth) Baba Yaga and The Great Gate of Kiev from Pictures at an Exhibition David Thornton, David Chatterton, Les Neish, Maria Molund conductors The Chetham’s and Junior RNCM Brass Bands give the day’s lunchtime concert, coming together at the end of the programme for a massed performance of The Great Gate of Kiev.

After the concert, don’t miss music from the Thames and Midland trombone quartets which will resound from the RNCM’s foyer areas.

Tickets £6.50 Concessions available

RNCM Brass Band

Tickets £6.50

Concessions available

Wilfred Heaton Praise Philip Sparke Concerto Grosso Gordon Langford Trombone Rhapsody Peter Graham Shine the Light Piotr Tchaikovsky (arr R Childs) 1812 Overture

Nicholas Childs co Stephen Sykes trom

Nicholas Childs cond in the closing concer trombonist Stephen BBC Radio 2’s Youn Tickets £6.50 Concessions available

Admission is free to Band Focus Day par tickets to the 12pm book a place, call 01 brassbandfocusday@ not taking part in d tickets for the conce £6.50.

Nicholas Childs conductor Stephen Sykes trombone Nicholas Childs conducts the RNCM Brass Band in the closing concert of the day, featuring the trombonist Stephen Sykes, the 2009 winner of BBC Radio 2’s Young Brass Soloist.

Tickets £6.50 Concessions available

Admission is free to registered RNCM Brass Band Focus Day participants, including tickets to the 12pm and 4pm concerts. To book a place, call 0161 907 5339 or email brassbandfocusday@rncm.ac.uk. For those not taking part in day’s workshops, individual tickets for the concerts can be purchased for £6.50.

JUNE

sh

Wilfred Heaton Pra Philip Sparke Conc Gordon Langford T Peter Graham Shin Piotr Tchaikovsky ( Overture

23

THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011 | PAGE 11

Conservatoire Feature

The Guildhall School of Music Trombone Department Chris Houlding, Eric Crees, Simon Wills, John Kenny and Peter Gane – five highly renowned professors and leading exponents in their fields – take time out of their busy schedules to catch up with The Trombonist.

Chris Houlding “I feel I’m in an incredibly lucky position to have had 27 years in a professional orchestra, of which I have enjoyed every minute, but I now devote more time to teaching it’s a passion and a vocation. Although I enjoy educating I suppose the ultimate for me is probably performing chamber music: I find the combination of being able to play solos in an ensemble situation - to be part of a group but also to be a solo contributor - particularly rewarding.

In professional life, the social aspect of making music with other people is a constant, whether you’re a member of a group or whether you have the opportunity to stand out front as a soloist or conductor. Also, being a professional musician beats everyday work. I can always remember having a builder come round to my house in Yorkshire to work for me for four days. He was interested in what I did, but couldn’t quite grasp it and at the end he said, ‘so have you never had a real job then?!’. It’s nice having a day off when everybody else is going to work, but not so nice working when everyone else is coming home; and the social side as well - particularly the people you work with in the brass fraternity... it’s just great.

I have never considered any other career. If I could turn back the clock, though, I would’ve made the decision to take up conducting a lot earlier than I did. If you haven’t already ‘made it’ in conducting by the time you’re 35 then you can forget it, especially with the hype in the business today for the young Wunderkinder. I would also say that being a musician is a socially demanding profession and it can be very difficult to maintain personal relationships - the divorce rate amongst musicians is there to prove it! However, I still think that there is nothing better than being paid to tour the world and to listen to some of the greatest singers and artists around.

Aside from music, I love eating and drinking. Apart from needing to eat out when on tour, I don’t actually go out to eat in restaurants very often, as I prefer sourcing local produce and cooking the ingredients myself.”

Eric Crees “Musically I enjoy variety; I enjoy everything - I’m as interested in jazz as I am in Gabrieli. I like to do a bit of everything and do it to the best of my ability, as I think that it’s important to be a diverse musician. When I joined the London Symphony Orchestra, we played mainly classical repertoire, but when the orchestra was being asked to play film soundtracks, things really took off for me. It was a great help having the legendary Maurice Murphy join not that long after. He was a great player of light music as well as an outstanding classical musician; he was also somebody who could lift the orchestra off its feet, so sitting next to him for 25 years was a real treat. I still enjoy the visceral, physical

PAGE 12 | THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011

part of playing... but you know, everything interests me - there’s never really enough time in the day to do what I want to do, but I do my best!

I never considered anything else as a profession, and I’ve been lucky enough to make a decent living and have a good time. However, I think I’m a reasonable linguist and I’m interested in all things gastronomic, so perhaps I could have made some kind of living out of these hobbies. I have no regrets, although being a professional musician in Britain these days is incredibly hard.

Outside of music I enjoy lots of things: walking in the country, drinking, collecting good wine, cooking, going to the theatre, the company of friends round the table - all sorts of things! As I said, there don’t seem to be enough hours in the day to do everything I’d like to do, because I’m very passionate about a lot of things. I still try and maintain my French to a pretty high standard, so going to France helps a lot, as does persuading wine growers to open their older bottles especially for me! Another thing I enjoy very much is fishing. In fact, there’s nothing I enjoy more than catching a fish and cooking it. Fishing is wonderful! So I think I lead a pretty full life.”

Simon Wills “I enjoy the great diversity of the demands of the music business, and also have a slightly obsessive interest in section playing. I suppose I’m a harmony junkie - the tendency to see a world in a grain of sand keeps me interested. Some people ask me if I ever get bored playing and the answer is never; never for an instant. The thing that I enjoy most as a listener or participant in music is the same thing that does it for me in any of the other art forms: I find an idea of whatever nature, which is expressed with clarity, really fascinating. The other thing that matters to me a great deal is narrative. I tend to anthropomorphise abstract forms and so narrative is everywhere: music creates the greatest tension between the artificial and the expressive.

I guess there are times when I perhaps regret becoming a professional musician, when I’m checking in at Stansted at 5.00am or hungover on some bus across Germany, but in terms of considering another profession, I did so once - I wanted to be a copper! I’d have been a disaster, but I’m from a family that had predominantly been in the armed forces, so it very much appealed. I flirted with the notion of academia, which would have been even worse than the police - and far more violent - but seriously, I think something that involves the use of language would have claimed me if music hadn’t. Eric Crees says that if we both hear a song, he’ll remember the tune and I’ll remember the words! I also have an ambivalent relationship with composition; I have an urge to make certain things. It’s a very forceful impulse and if ignored, will generally make

Conservatoire Feature

trouble for me. Usually I get morose and bad tempered if I don’t write but I don’t particularly like the process of doing it as it’s very exhausting, and I’ve very deliberately kept it at one remove from the mainstream of my life.

Outside of music, I am very passionate about the outdoors.

I don’t have time to garden as much as I would like, but I do grow herbs. I am also passionate about the visual arts everywhere I go I will always find a gallery.

A few years ago, I went through a phase of hating touring and I decided that the way to stay sane was to have a mad hobby, so I started a mousetrap collection! Every country I went to I tried to get a mousetrap that was typical of the region, and recently I found about 40 of them in my attic. It was a form of induced serendipity: the search for a mousetrap led to other things. You tell people what you’re up to and they sort of adopt you and help you in the search - you go looking for a Japanese mousetrap and you end up climbing a volcano! I think I’ve got duller with age and don’t go in for such things now.”

John Kenny “The thing I love most about making music is the possibility of being totally immersed in a constructive activity that allows both intellectual engagement and deep emotional expression. The performing arts are one of the few areas where we can legitimately work with the yin and yang intellect and emotion. To find that balance, an empathy with fellow performers (or interpreters, if I happen to be functioning primarily as a composer) is a wonderful thing.

The style and period of music matters very little to me; the people matter a very great deal. My musical taste is very ‘catholic’ - and to be paid to do something I love is a great privilege for me.

There was a time, shortly after leaving the Royal Academy of Music, when I felt very disillusioned with the musical and expressive opportunities open to me as a trombonist.

I envied string players and pianists with their wonderful classical and romantic repertoire and the performing life that goes with it. I was already very interested in contemporary music and early music, but there was something missing, so I turned to dance and theatre and became increasingly involved with both. I started working as an actor in about 1980. I love working on stage - just last year I took a couple of months out to do a continental tour in a dramatic role - but never really considered dropping music to become an actor. When I first lived in Scotland, I spent several years as a gardener, but that was a way of escaping London. For a time, I had a strange but rather enjoyable dual existence, giving solo recitals on the continent and working as a gardener in the UK - a great advantage of that was having a lot of time to practise and to develop my own personality, both as a performer and as a composer.

I have never regretted becoming a professional musician. My

dad spent his life working on roads and in factories, saving for a future that he didn’t live to enjoy. I vowed I wouldn’t let that happen to me. I’ve always lived with financial insecurity and I’ve never had a ‘job’, but if I had the chance to start over again, I would still become a musician.

When I’m not performing, teaching or writing (or snowed under with administration, which is a necessary evil) I love to walk, climb, cycle and swim in remote places.

Temperamentally I’m not suited to city dwelling. One of the many reasons I love living in Scotland is that I can indulge my longing to be alone in a stunning natural environment very easily - it’s all on my doorstep.”

Peter Gane “In the profession, apart from playing in a fantastic orchestra and trombone section, the thing I enjoyed most was the camaraderie. Now, apart from composing and writing, I enjoy conducting and teaching, which is all being part of a bigger family. I think trombone players are naturally gregarious - the ones that aren’t don’t tend to get on very well!

I love listening to big bands. I was very lucky to have been brought up in an era when all the great American big bands were still coming to Great Britain. As I lived in Poole and studied in Manchester, I had the opportunity to hear them perform in the Bournemouth Winter Gardens and at the Free Trade Hall. Back then it was popular music so it was natural to go and hear Woody Herman, Count Basie and Stan Kenton - all those great bands. I was in a big band at college and was also a member of a jazz quintet. I like pop, early and contemporary music, and bagpipes... generally I like most genres of music! I also enjoy good organ music, as my dad was an organist. I remember sliding up and down the organ bench when I was young, pulling out all the stops as I went!

I stopped playing about 30 years ago and concentrated on becoming a good teacher. I receive a huge amount of satisfaction and stimulation through being associated with young talent - it keeps one fresh and alive and also in touch with reality. My work with the National Youth Orchestra, the European Youth Orchestra and the Guildhall are a great joy. I’ve been very lucky. I’ve had my ups and downs, my likes and dislikes, but generally speaking at any moment I’ve never wished to be anywhere other than where I am.

My advice would be that if you’re teaching, it’s raining and you’re in a struggling school, never wish you were in Bermuda on the beach but rather make the most of where you are; make everything really matter. That philosophy in itself will bring rewards.

Outside music, I have a house in France so I spend a lot of my time there. I’ve just planted half a field with vines so, being ever optimistic, I am now looking for a good 50 litre wine press if you’ve got one! I also enjoy DIY and when I get some time I would like to start playing golf again.”

THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011 | PAGE 13

awaiting advert

awards

The BTS Executive Board is planning to make the first of its annual awards this year to notable people in the trombone world.

The four categories of awards are: 1. Trombone player 2. Trombone teacher 3. Young trombonist/student trombonist 4. Other outstanding contribution to the trombone We welcome nominations from BTS members either in writing or through email to: BTS Secretary (secretary@britishtrombonesociety.org) 1-3 Church Street Hutton YO25 9PR Please include the following information when you make your nomination(s): your name and contact details name of nominee category of nomination (1-4 above) short description of reasons for nomination Please send your nomination by 1 September 2011.

Presentations of plaques will be made at the AGM at Oundle School in October 2011.

The executive board of the BTS will choose the four award winners from members’ nominations and all decisions will be publicised on the website and in the magazine.

THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011 | PAGE 15

SLIDES

The Eastern Trom BTS President, Brett Baker, attended this year’s Eastern Trombone Workshop, which was presented by the United States Army Band ‘Pershing’s Own’ at Fort Myer, Virginia, near Washington D.C., 16-19 March. He reports back to The Trombonist on his time at the event.

Andrew Malloy, Stefan Schulz, John Rojak and Brett Baker at the recent ETW

This is the second time I have been fortunate enough to visit the Eastern Trombone Workshop. The first time I attended the event was back in 1998; this year I was excited about going once again and interested to see how much the festival had changed within the period of 13 years. The ETW is seen as one of the largest events of its kind in the world. Highlights of this year’s workshop included a visit from Stefan Schulz, bass trombonist of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Jim Pugh, the great jazz artist, and recording artists Andrew Molloy and Bill Reichenbach.

The festival was also a celebration of 50 years of the American Brass Quintet, which has both a tenor and bass trombone in its group.

Travelling over from Manchester, I managed to get from Reagan International Airport in Washington D.C. to the Fort where the workshop was taking place, just as Stefan Schultz was finishing his masterclass. Everyone came out of the studio amazed at what the bass trombonist demonstrated and discussed. I was then fortunate to listen to the D Clef Trombone Company - consisting of Michael Dease, Robert Edwards, Nick Grinder and Eric Miller who played a number of exciting jazz compositions.

Next up was one of the highlights for me and that was listening to the

Washington Trombone Ensemble conducted by Henry Charles Smith and Chris Branagan; the group’s rendition of Derek Bourgeois’s Scherzo Funebre was particularly impressive.

The piece was written around 1986 and has not been played an awful lot because of its range and technical demands. However, this ensemble made the work sound so easy. It was a terrific performance. Bourgeois was a neighbour of mine when I was growing up and so it was great to hear his music being played on the ‘other side of the pond’. I was proud to find that his works are also very much revered in the American trombone community.

The ETW offers such a busy and varied programme that it was impossible to attend every event. However, it was certainly a great thrill to listen to a question and answer session by Andrew Malloy and Bill Reichenbach on the Thursday; it really is a varied and interesting life that they both lead. I also had the privilege of hearing Ron Barron - previously the principal trombone of the Boston Symphony Orchestra - perform Palmetto Suite

by Eric Ewazen, We’ve got Rhythm

by Charlie Small, Rapsodia Caribeana

by Eric Alexander and Annie Laurie

by Arthur Pryor, accompanied by a brass quintet formed by some of the ‘Pershing’s Own’ musicians.

PAGE 16 | THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011

Friday saw Harry Watters, one of the leading lights of the U.S. Army scene, perform a series of jazz standards as well as some new repertoire, supported by piano, drums and bass. He looked exactly the same as he did the last time I saw him approximately 12 years ago and so cannot be working hard enough in the army (yes, I’m just jealous). I also managed to hear Lee Rogers play Richard Peaslee’s Arrows of Time. It was a spectacular performance from someone that I am sure we will hear much more of in years to come. Following this Stefan Schulz gave a recital of German and Russian music, and most encapsulating about his playing was the expressivity he demonstrated in the songs that he performed.

David Gibson and his jazz quartet also gave a fresh and exciting recital in the afternoon. Gibson played a lot of his own compositions as well as those of keyboard player, Jared Gold; the musicians gelled naturally together and instinctively interacted with one another. Two further performances from trombone choirs followed in the recital hall from the Louisiana State University Trombone Choir conducted

by Jeannie Little and the West Texas A&M Trombone Choir conducted by Dr. Rai Morales. It was such a joy to hear trombone choirs in the USA: in

SLIDES

mbone Workshop

Jim Pugh, Andrew Malloy and Brett Baker relaxing after the concert the UK it is a rare occurrence to hear a rehearsed and regular practicing trombone choir. It was also interesting to see that many of the British arrangements were being played in these recitals, including Eric Crees’s version of 76 trombones.

In the evening Bill Reichenbach gave an informative talk about how to survive in the music business, and The Capitol Bones - trombones, piano, bass, and drums from Washington D.C. featuring trombonists Matt Niess, Jim McFalls, Jay Gibble, Jerry Amoury and Jeff Cortazzo - gave a celebratory 20-year anniversary concert for all to enjoy. I then managed to listen to at least the first half of the U.S. Army Blues concert, featuring Steve Weist, Jim Pugh and Bill Reichenbach. These are three of the most accomplished players of their generation; their virtuosity and musicianship was simply awe-inspiring.

The next day saw Ava Ordman of the Michigan State University lead an early-morning group warm up, a performance by the National Trombone Quartet Competition winners, whose standard of playing

was quite remarkable, and also the University of Northern Colorado Trombone Choir perform with Craig Mulcahy, principal trombonist of the National Symphony Orchestra. Also John Rojak, bass trombonist of the American Brass Quintet, gave an entire recital of newly-commissioned works.

He played three beautifully written solos, namely Shadows by Edgar Girtain, Sonata by Steven Sacco and Dream Sequence by Clint Needham.

Following this one of the most reputed of all trombone choirs took to the stage. The Eastman Trombone Choir, conducted by the illustrious Dr. John Marcellus, began by performing a thrilling arrangement of a Concerto

by Vivaldi and subsequently a quartet arrangement of J.S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Other pieces in this varied programme included Dance of the Spirits of the Earth by Gustav Holst and Ray Wright’s Stardust for the Chief, as well as Musique à Curitiba by Jean Michel Defaye, played by soloist, Justin Mason.

The final concert of the ETW opened with a wind band version of ‘Fêtes’ from Claude Debussy’s Nocturnes. I

then took to the stage to perform Buxton Orr’s two-movement Trombone Concerto. The 25 minutes passed by very quickly and I was glad to get through the piece without any mishaps. Jack Hayes’s Fantasy for Trombone was the next work to be played by Andrew Malloy - a very descriptive piece played impressively by the soloist. Jim Pugh then wowed the audience with Sammy Nestico’s Reflective Mood to conclude the first half of the concert. In the second half, Ron Barron played Eric Ewazen’s Visions of Light, which is an extremely lofty work that was first recorded

by Joseph Alessi. Barron delivered this extremely high solo with much ease. Then came the finale, in the form of Stefan Schulz playing Daniel Schnyder’s subZERO Concerto. His flawless execution made trombonists think again about playing this work - what an unbeatable performance of the highest quality. This ended a superb week of music making from some of the finest trombone players in the world. Many congratulations to Sam Wood and Chris Branigan for organising such an enjoyable and successful event.

THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011 | PAGE 17

COVER STORY

Denis Wick Trombonist, Teacher and Entrepreneur Rodney Newton looks at the life and outstanding career of Denis Wick - leading trombonist and doyen of designers and manufacturers of mouthpieces and mutes.

Seldom can there have been an individual who has had as much influence over a specific area of brass playing as has Denis Wick. It can be argued that he changed the British orchestral trombone sound singlehandedly, having pioneered in the UK the wide-bore instruments in common use today, and produced a vast range of mouthpieces and mutes that are in the instrument cases of innumerable brass players of all styles and levels throughout the world.

Now 79 years young, he still heads an enormously successful firm and continually comes up with new ideas to advance the art of brass playing. He has recently started work on what is bound to be a best-selling autobiography.

PAGE 18 | THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011

COVER STORY Wick was born in 1931 in Braintree, Essex and brought up and educated in Chelmsford, Thorne (Yorkshire) and Luton. His father had been a tuba player with Braintree Silver Prize Band; his mother had once been an officer in The Salvation Army. After moving to Chelmsford, Wick’s father began to work for the SA’s insurance services and his parents renewed their association with the church. At the age of ten, Wick was handed a trombone and was encouraged to join the local corps’ Young People’s Band. Wick proceeded to teach himself to play the trombone and joined the junior band at Chelmsford corps, taking his instrument and skills with him to Yorkshire and finally to Luton, eventually joining the town band there during one of its golden periods.

At the age of 16, Wick heard his first live orchestral concert, which was given by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Eduard van Beinum in the Vauxhall Motor Works canteen.

Inspired by the playing of its principal trumpet - a young man called Malcolm Arnold whose overture, Beckus the Dandipratt, was included in the programme - Wick decided that he had to become a professional musician himself. His parents were very supportive, but of modest means, and his mother went out to work in order to finance his training.

In 1949, Wick enrolled at the Royal Academy of Music to study the trombone with Sidney Langston, who had been principal trombone of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1932 until 1947, and was at that time Sir Thomas Beecham’s principal trombone in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Langston was a very fine player but seemed reluctant to pass on any information that he feared might allow his students to ‘poach’ his own work.

Wick therefore did not learn as much as he wanted to and, out of frustration, left the academy after only one year. An engagement with an amateur orchestra in Salisbury led to contact with two trombonists from the Bournemouth Municipal (now Bournemouth Symphony) Orchestra and, when a 2nd trombone vacancy arose in the orchestra shortly afterwards, he was surprised to receive a telegram from no less than the orchestra’s conductor, Rudolf Schwarz, inviting him to apply

for the position. Although there were a number of other young players who applied for the job, all in their final year at music college, Wick was chosen and, at the age of 19, joined his first professional orchestra. In 1952, a year after Rudolf Schwarz had moved to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the principal trombone seat became vacant there and Wick successfully auditioned for the job, remaining in the position until 1957. His audition was quite stiff, as the CBSO’s management wanted to be certain that Schwarz was not exercising any unfair preference towards his former Bournemouth musicians. Wick enjoyed his five years in Birmingham and, while he was there, he gave the first performance of Gordon Jacob’s Trombone Concerto. By this time, he had developed a series of warm-up and flexibility studies ,which were put to good use when advising Dr. Jacob on the solo part, especially the cadenza in the last movement.

In 1957, Wick was offered the principal trombone positions with both the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Initially he found the choice difficult.

However, following the advice of Rudolf Schwarz he accepted the LSO position, joining a section that included Chris Devenport and Tony Thorpe, with Hector (‘Tiggy’) Walker on tuba.

This move eventually led to international recognition and the spreading of his influence throughout the British trombone fraternity and further afield.

In an interview for the BTS on the occasion of his retirement from the LSO in 1988, he commented that, because of what was known as ‘the big split’ (when 15 principal players left the LSO to form Muir Mathieson’s Sinfonia of London, which was largely used for recording film soundtracks), the LSO “wasn’t really a proper job at all, since the departing players had taken much of the orchestra’s best work, including the film sessions, with them.”

The LSO struggled with a lack of engagements and Wick had to make ends meet by deputising with the CBSO in Birmingham while the orchestra continued to search for his replacement.

The standard of conductors in the LSO was not always of the highest quality apart from Josef Krips, the flamboyant Leopold Stokowski and the fiery Antal Dorati, who Wick described as

“the biggest kick up the backside the orchestra ever had.” Wick commented that he coped with the awkward conductors “by smiling and looking intelligent!”

His work with the LSO is exemplified by the many of the fine recordings he made with the orchestra, especially the two recordings of Mahler’s 3rd Symphony - one under Jascha Horenstein, still in the catalogue, and the other with Sir Georg Solti, currently unavailable - with its extended trombone solos in the first movement, as well as Sir Colin Davis’s recordings of the Berlioz Grande Messe de Morts and the Mozart Requiem. He and his late 1970s section (Roger Groves, Eric Crees and Frank Mathieson) can also be heard to great effect in the company of their peerless tuba-playing colleague, John Fletcher, on the soundtracks of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Along with his work in the LSO, Wick also managed to find time to play with the London Sinfonietta and, for a short period, the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. In addition to the Gordon Jacob concerto he has had other works written for him, notably by Buxton Orr and Alun Hoddinott. However, it was during the early part of his tenure as principal trombone with the LSO that the British trombone revolution started. Whilst with the orchestra in Belgium at the 1958 Brussels Exhibition, he managed to acquire a Conn 8H tenor trombone, which made a much bigger sound than the instruments that players in the UK were using at the time. His colleague, principal horn Barry Tuckwell, commented, “It sounds like you, but even more so!” Wick managed to convert his LSO colleagues to Conns as well and the difference in sound quality was very noticeable. One by one, other UK players followed suit and began to acquire Conn trombones, despite the fact the instruments were expensive. Wick then found that the Vincent Bach 4G mouthpiece he was now using on his Conn was fine for loud playing, but during very quiet passages, the instrument sounded somewhat ‘anonymous’: “You couldn’t tell whether it was a trombone, a horn or a euphonium.” So Wick decided to take matters into his own hands, literally, and set about producing something better. While at school in Luton, he

THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011 | PAGE 19

COVER STORY had a first-class education in technical drawing and engineering skills since it was the ambition of most of the parents to get their sons into the drawing office at Vauxhall Motors, which offered excellent career prospects. He searched around and came across an old SA euphonium mouthpiece with which to experiment, cutting a thread on it so that different rims could be tried. He had also found a small engineering company run by Bill Cox, a retired merchant navy ship’s engineer.

Wick showed his eventual prototype to Cox; then Cox made a tool known as a ‘former’, producing an initial run of 100 mouthpieces, which Wick sold for £5 apiece. Orders began to come in and Wick also began to introduce new trombone models. Around this time Boosey and Hawkes invited him to help develop the Sovereign trombone which, of course, needed a suitable mouthpiece, and suddenly Wick found himself the supplier of mouthpieces to one of the world’s biggest instrument manufacturers. With the help of his colleagues (and Cox, of course), Wick was able to design and produce a whole range of brass instrument mouthpieces which Boosey and Hawkes sold until the firm’s manufacturing arm closed down.

In consultation with some of Britain’s finest brass players, Wick then began a project to develop better mouthpieces; the range eventually extended to over 100 carefully worked-out models for every possible brass instrument, with every product made to precise tolerances and hand finished with an excellent standard of polishing and plating. The mute-making business began a little later as Wick recalls: “Around 1969, I had tentatively suggested that somebody ought to design mutes that actually played in tune and that worked in every register. We had been recording film music with Bernard Herrmann, who had helped to make all those Hitchcock movies such a success.

He was contemptuous of the old fibre mutes that I and my colleagues in the LSO trombone section were using. He called them ‘psychological mutes’ and we knew what he meant. Our trumpet colleagues were using a famous U.S. make, but they always played slightly sharp with a very tinny sound and we did not blend together at all.

PAGE 20 | THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011

I found a newer American trombone mute, which I thought would solve our problems. It made a great sound, but unfortunately it was just too big to handle easily and, on one memorable occasion, it refused to come out of the bell of my trombone, then finally slipped from my fingers with a tremendous clatter during a live broadcast of a BBC Promenade concert. André Previn, our conductor, was not amused, and something had to be done.

“At the time I had a student who was also a brilliant graphic artist, with a talent that enabled him to make a perfect freehand drawing of anything, instantly. I remember the day well - it was December 26, 1969. With three children, Christmas had been a busy time, but now I could relax. I had assembled every trumpet and trombone mute that I could find and invited my young friend over to draw all of them, which he did in just a few minutes. I then superimposed all the drawings for trumpet mutes and uncovered a curious phenomenon: if I drew (with the aid of compasses, I should add) a kind of median line between all of them, the proportions seemed just about perfect. There was a symmetry between height and width, and all the curves were proportionate. The same happened with the trombone mute, arrived at in the same way, although this was more difficult, as I was determined to make it grippable by my not-verybig hand.

“So, when I next visited Bill Cox, I showed him my drawings and asked if these mutes could be made. He said, ‘You need a metal-spinner’. I had no idea what a metal spinner might be and I must have looked puzzled.

‘Leave it with me,’ he said, ‘I’ll get some prices for you.’ A week later he told me, ‘About £2 each for the trumpet mutes.’ By now, Boosey and Hawkes had been selling my mouthpieces for 18 months, so I asked Bill Martin, the Company’s buyer, if they might be interested in the mutes and for about how much they could sell them. ‘About £2,’ was the reply. It had seemed a good idea, but there was no profit margin, so I more or less forgot about it - that is, until almost a year later. I was returning home after an LSO recording session at the marvellous Kingsway Hall (now long gone) when I saw a discarded newspaper on

the seat next to me on the tube train.

In the classified advertisements section a proclamation read, ‘Metal Spinning Capacity Available’. Where had I heard about metal spinning? Yes, of course!

A phone call led to an appointment to visit a Dickensian-looking workshop in Camden Town, north London. I showed my drawings to the three elderly, oddlooking characters there who looked at them quizzically, being unsure exactly what a brass mute was. ‘How much?’

I asked, and they consulted with each other. ‘Abaht ten bob,’ was the reply, which was a quarter of what old Bill Cox had quoted!

“I picked up the first samples a week later. They had spun a dozen or so in aluminium, using simple hardwood tooling. The arrangement was that if the mutes worked, I would order 100.

The first batch looked good, if rather dirty. At home, a search in the rubbish bin produced some discarded cork table mats. I cut out some pieces of cork, glued them on and the following day, recording again in Kingsway Hall, I passed one down to Howard Snell, who was then our principal trumpet.

‘What’s this?’ he asked, rather suspiciously. ‘A mute,’ I replied. ‘I can see it’s a mute,’ said Howard, adding, ‘where did you get it?’ ‘Never mind that,’ I replied, ‘what do you think of it?’ He tried it and exclaimed, ‘This is fantastic!’

“He passed it down to George Reynolds and Willie Lang and they all turned round like a close harmony chromatic triad. I handed out two more - they loved them - and the rest, you might say, is history. Within the next weeks I had literally dozens of calls from London trumpet players who also wanted them. Forty years later, many thousands have been sold. Several metal spinning firms have made them for me; they have been anodised from almost the beginning. They have been copied by various rival companies (imitation and flattery?!) and I am grateful for the muse that seemed to have visited me all those years ago. These were the first of more than 30 models that have formed the backbone of my business for all that time.

“The trombone mutes were, when I first made them, better than anything so far, but not quite good enough.

There were some extra resonances which had crept in on the highest

COVER STORY

...my mutes were much more to his taste than any of the others... notes. I made some changes and found that I could move these resonances to other notes, but after making several new versions, I eventually came back to the original when I found that the anodising process immediately solved the problem. I was finally convinced that it was as perfect as I could make it when the composer and conductor, Benjamin Britten, overheard me demonstrating one to Stuart Knussen (the LSO’s principal double-bass) and Howard Snell during a tea break at the famous Snape Concert Hall, when we were recording Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with Britten himself conducting. He asked what we were doing and insisted on listening himself, virtually taking over the testing process, asking for me to play at every dynamic, making exhaustive comparisons with all the other (mainly American) makes, and told us that mine was much more to his taste than any of the others. This was a tremendous compliment from a composer who has been described as an ‘orchestral chemist’ for his brilliant orchestration skills (Stuart Knussen said, in his unmistakable Manchester accent, ‘Meck sure you get that in writing!’).”

Wick is not one for resting on past achievements or standing still and development, or in some cases, redevelopment, takes place continually. He explained, “Over the last few years, I had heard it said that my older trumpet straight mutes were better than those in current production. Of course, retooling had taken place, probably five or six times over the years, and the new tooling has always been made to conform with the latest production.

So, I searched for the original 1969 drawings, eventually found them and discovered that there was a slight difference, so I had the tooling remade yet again. The new ‘old’ models are indeed much better - that extra 2 millimetres on the base diameter and 1.5 millimetres on the height have added a bit more volume, although the intonation has remained good. These new ‘original’ mutes have been on the market for several years now, so although there was nothing seriously wrong

with the slightly reduced version, the new ones are something rather special.

I am told that the newest versions, with brass or copper bases, are even better.”

During the process of designing a practise mute, Wick intended to make near-silent practise possible, but also to maintain good intonation and a feel not too different from normal playing. He made a valuable discovery: “One aspect of the brass-blowing body machine, which is hardly ever emphasised enough, is the throat. By opening the throat area - or closing it - the tone quality can be varied enormously.

Although the differences are not quite as much as in singing, they can easily be heard on any brass instrument. It remains a problem, however, to put across to the young player the concept of ‘open your throat’. Many ideas like ‘swallowing a football’, ‘yawning outwards’ or ‘cooling a hot potato’ work to a greater or lesser degree, as I found in my own teaching, but needed to be said so many times! I discovered that by using my practise mute for loud practise this tight throat problem could be eliminated in minutes. There was an additional bonus in that breathing became much more efficient when the throat was forced open by the resistance of the mute. The total result exceeded my wildest dreams. Here was a way of speeding up the teaching process, especially with young players.

Even the smallest and weakest could sound almost professional in volume within a matter of weeks rather than years. I well remember a very little girl who suddenly was able to produce an amazingly loud fortissimo. I began to realise that I had stumbled upon a teaching technique that could help young brass students in a very positive way. Worldwide sales of practise mutes for trumpet, piccolo trumpet, French horn, tenor and bass trombones seem to show that other people think so too, and there are now practise mutes for all brass instruments.”

That is not the limit of Wick’s activities, though, and this seemingly inexhaustible man has long been a much soughtafter teacher. Having been appointed

Professor of Trombone at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1967, he taught there regularly until 1976, continuing to work as a consultant professor and conductor until 1989. His intensely musical, yet very practical, approach to teaching is widely respected. He was appointed Professor of Trombone at the Royal Academy of Music in 2000 and awarded a fellowship in 2002. His textbook, Trombone Technique, is used worldwide and considered one of the most important publications of its kind, with translations available in Japanese, German, Swedish and Italian.

On his retirement from the LSO in 1988, he was awarded the annual award of the International Trombone Association, presented each year to an individual who has greatly influenced the field of trombone, and in 1990 he was elected Second Vice President in charge of international affairs. From 1992 to 1995, he served as President of the BTS and, although now retired from professional trombone playing, he continues to be in demand as a conductor and for masterclasses worldwide. In 2006, he was presented with the Neill Humfeld Award, which recognises outstanding trombone teaching. From 2004 until 2006, he served as President of the ITA, brought the International Trombone Festival to Birmingham and made great strides to internationalise the association’s magazine.

His conducting work began at the GSMD in the 1960s and has naturally been centred on brass and wind ensembles. The institution also included for many years an excellent symphony orchestra, which has bred generations of professional players. His own London Wind Orchestra made prizewinning recordings in the 1970s which set new standards of excellence for this kind of ensemble, and his publishing company, Denis Wick Publishing, specialises in wind band and brass ensemble repertoire, most of which he has transcribed himself. It is plain to see the extraordinary influence this man has had on brass playing, and it is small wonder that the name on so many brass players’ lips is that of Denis Wick.

The Trombonist would like to thank Denis Wick for his invaluable assistance in preparing this feature and for permission to quote from his forthcoming autobiography.

THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011 | PAGE 21

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STARS OF THE FUTURE

NAME

Ross Elliot Johnson

AGE LOCATION INSTRUMENTS

15 Oswestry, Shropshire Rath R4F; Besson Sovereign

CURRENT POSITIONS Porthywaen Silver Band (principal trombone) Porthywaen Youth and Training Band (principal trombone) Shropshire Youth Brass Band (first trombone) Band Ysgol Uchwradd Llanfyllin (principal trombone)

STARTED PLAYING

Trombone (aged 7)

TEACHERS

Brett Baker (2010–) John Proctor (2007–) Self-taught (2003–2007)

FAVOURITE PIECES Test-piece: Concert Piece: Solos:

Labour and Love by Percy Fletcher The Gael by Trevor Jones Blue Jeans by Rob Wiffin Concertino by Ferdinand David Alfie by Burt Bachurach and Hal David

AMBITION

To be lead trombonist in a world famous band.

Ross started his musical life playing the violin, but at the age of seven picked up the trombone at the Beginners Band at Porthywaen and has not put it down since. Completely self-taught, Ross received advice and helpful comments from the Youth and Training Band members. He found himself sitting in the Senior Band, performing at concerts throughout Shropshire and Mid Wales. It was at this time that Carol Jones (née Stokes) took over the baton of the Porthywaen Youth and Training Bands and suggested to Ross’s parents that he should have trombone lessons. John Proctor was teaching brass at Llanfyllin High School where Ross was a pupil, so arrangements were made. His first trombone exam was Grade 4, which was passed with a distinction - 139 out of 150 - and he achieved his Grade 8 aged 14.

Ross has enjoyed many successes with Porthywaen Youth and Training Band and Shropshire Youth Brass Band at both local and national levels, including performing at Music for Youth at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham for the past four years; winning the Midlands Regional Championship with Porthywaen Silver Band and playing at Harrogate last year in the National

Finals. Ross became Porthywaen’s first ever ‘Youth Bandsperson of the Year’ and ‘Senior Bandsman of the Year’ for 2010, which he feels is a great honour.

Ross loves playing the trombone at weddings and on special occasions.

Along with his sister, Becki, he has formed a pop group, No Wallpaper: “We do cover versions of Duffy, Jools Holland, The Carpenters, The Beatles, Amy Winehouse, Nora Jones and more.”

All the members of the band play at Porthywaen and have a great time exploring each other’s alternative musical tastes. They have a horn section - trombone, trumpet and saxophone - but also feature vocals, guitar, keyboard and drums. Ross explains, “It seems to be working for us. We have been able to purchase our own speakers, microphones, lights and other kit from the money we earn from our performances. Our next gig is a three-day event at a local beer festival run by the Lions Club, which helps raise money for good causes.”

Some of the highlights of Ross’s playing career to date have included performing on the same stage as the world famous Fron Male Voice Choir; appearing on television for BBC 2’s Victorian Pharmac and also performing

alongside members of the Tredegar Town Band. Porthywaen Silver Band tours Belgium each summer and Ross has played with the band at the stunning World War I Memorial, Menin Gate. “It was spine-tingling performing here. We were actually playing at the Menin Gate on the same day Harry Patch, the last surviving member of the British Army who served in World War I, passed away. I will never forget this day: the town of Ypres was packed and we gave a great performance at the evening service.”

While at a Black Dyke Concert in Newtown, Powys, John Proctor introduced Ross to Brett Baker and trombone lessons with Brett commenced shortly after. Since then, Ross has become a member of the BTS and attended the BTS event in Rochdale last year as well as in Salford in January this year. “These experiences have been fantastic. It is great fun to play alongside trombone players from other bands, and the tuition from world class players, who make you feel so at home, is brilliant.”

Ross is learning the trade of a trombone player and is developing his technique and sound with great dedication.

Keep your eyes out for this young lad - he wants to go places.

THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011 | PAGE 23

COMPOSER’S CORNER

A Trombonist’s Foray I

James McFadyen is a composer, music producer and author. He was commissioned by the BTS to write a piece specifically for the Open Day in Salford, Manchester on 30 January 2011. Here he discusses his compositional process, what inspired his work and also provides a brief analysis of his composition. He is due to be commissioned by the BTS again this year and is looking forward to the new challenges that this will bring.

My compositional process is oldfashioned by modern standards: I always write my scores by hand.

I believe the act of writing is the end process of what has been a real process of research and listening. I do an immense amount of listening to a wide variety of music and study endless scores. This might sound a bit extreme for such a simple piece I was commissioned to write but it is the method I adopt for all my output.

One of the hardest things about writing by hand is relying on my inner ear - the ability to write exactly what

sound completely on their own, but once slotted together they form a large yet intricate ensemble. In this way it is easier to obtain complexity from simplicity; this, I believe, provides a score with more order and symmetry.

Harmonically the work is predominantly built in the Lydian mode - a fantastical mode to explore with lots of ‘magical’ opportunities.

Jazz enthusiasts will be disappointed to hear that I have not used the sub-dominant chord with a flattened fifth - a staple of Lydian harmony because I did not want the piece to sound too jazzy; it needed to retain a certain amount of classical properties to preserve the mystical sound. Soft mixtures of Dorian and Aeolian modes are also merged in to the work

PAGE 24 | THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011

you hear in your head and conversely the ability to hear exactly what is written on the page. It would not be uncommon for me to write 16 bars or so and feel happy about it, then perhaps another 16 bars in, I start to get doubts if it is working. It is at this point I either scrap it or trust my instincts and carry on. It is not until I am at least halfway through writing the piece that I feel comfortable that everything is going well. And this is without hearing it, except in my head.

Even well after 15 years of composing, I cannot shake this unnerving doubt.

Perhaps it is partly what keeps me focused and perhaps composers are supposed to be on the edge of their seat whilst writing.

The Magic Forest is scored for double trombone quintet, which includes two easier parts for younger players. The central theme opens the work in a strong, quasi rock fanfare motif in D flat Lydian as outlined below: From the outset, it is clear that both quintets operate independently and

in order to neutralise some of the Lydian harmonies.

The London Trombone Sound’s version of Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber caught my attention during the research process. The opening chord is so ominous and I immediately wanted to capture a little bit of this in the piece. It comes in various guises but is sounded by deep block chords; trombones have great facility of providing a deep sound without becoming muddy and in this way they may be configured to produce an almost primeval powerful sound. The final chord of The Magic Forest is just one example of such block writing I have used in the piece to offer a powerfully dark tone.

James McFadyen

Trombonist, Matthew Parry, started writing sketches, plays and general nonsense for a local drama club whilst attending Nottingham High School, and continued to do so throughout a maths degree at King’s College London and a post-graduate diploma at the Royal Academy of Music. He is currently involved in a new project that has a noble and heroic aim - to get more children listening to classical music, and he believes he has discovered an ingenious method for doing so...

“It began back in 2002 towards the end of my studies at the RAM and with an idea I had for my final recital.

Trombonists will know that there’s not an enormous amount of repertoire to choose from - though this has improved greatly over the last couple of decades - and trombone recitals often have quite similar programmes. I wanted to do something a bit different and had the thought of writing a comical narration set to some classical music. I’m not sure why I chose Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, I guess initially because of the well-known trombone solo in the second movement, but also because it clearly has a programmatic basis. It is quite simply a wonderfully colourful and evocative piece.

Looking up the original stories I discovered the standard translations by Richard Burton, the famous explorer (not the famous alcoholic!). This was quite an eye-opening experience; their lascivious and politically outrageous content is definitely not for children. But still, with a bit of editing, the translations provided a rich source of comedy, drama, intrigue

EDUCATION

Into Albums of Children’s Stories Set to Classical Music and, most importantly, stories about baboons!

From this I put together a brief bit of nonsense arranged for trombone and trumpet solo, small ensemble and narrator, and performed it first for my recital and again a couple of weeks later as a surprise item in Denis Wick’s 70th birthday concert at the Duke’s Hall, RAM. It seemed to go down well, but also while playing the part of Scheherazade - dressed as a princess in a wig and playing my trombone - I had a profound revelation about what I was doing: I was aligning the script’s delivery with each musical phrase and creating a powerful dramatic effect.

This thought remained with me as I pursued a playing career; working as a music teacher also kept me thinking about new ways to get kids listening to classical music.

My ideas grew and I planned to craft a witty and lively script to perfectly superimpose this entire symphonic work from start to finish; the young listener would then absorb the music whilst simply following the story. My intention was to create something educational but without being explicitly so. Lots of (very worthwhile) projects start by saying, ‘Hey kids, this is the orchestra, and this is by Mozart… isn’t it fantastic?!’, but I think approaching instead from a different angle - ‘have a listen to this, it’s funny’ - and letting the children discover the underlying music for themselves can have a greater effect. The education will follow once you’ve caught their attention. I’d like to eventually publish my work as

a textbook or teaching resource, but in the meantime I guess the CD alone works well as something to listen to in the car, or perhaps as a bedtime story.

Whilst on a tour in Manchester I put a pilot production together helped by Sam Morris, an old school friend who’s a natural entertainer and now a peripatetic brass teacher for Manchester Music Service. Also involved from the beginning was Jess Murphy, a friend of mine from the RAM and a multitalented actress and violinist who went on to study at the Drama Studio in London; she was the perfect choice for this combination of drama with music.

I pitched the pilot to the big record labels, which was an interesting experience. The major companies have been through turbulent times in the last 20 years - which is a whole other story (Norman Lebrecht provides an interesting analysis in his book subtitled The Secret Life and Shameful Death of the Classical Record Industry, which says it all really) - and so I found myself discussing potential record deals, only to suddenly lose out because of company restructuring.

and faith in me! Other people I should thank for their generous input are the RAM for their facilities, Tom Watson of Prozone Music for his brilliant engineering of the orchestral recordings, Greg Arrowsmith for his superb conducting during three days of sessions, and Sarah Sexton for her wonderful violin solo in Scheherazade. Thanks also to BBC Radio’s Andrew Smillie for mastering the album, and not forgetting my mum and dad for their support throughout.

However, the feedback I received was that there is definitely a market for my product, but the labels were not prepared to take a punt on something a bit different. After 18 months of pitching I thought, ‘right then, I’ll just do it myself!’ A couple of hundred phone calls later I had an orchestra together who were happy to do the sessions for royalties - what a great bunch of old and new friends, all professional players and very generous with their time

With illustrations by Jonny Duddle, graphic design by Aeron Jones, webdesign by James Topp (who also played in the horn section), and I should also mention Nigel Garton’s perfectly pitched vocal contribution, the album is out now and available on iTunes, Amazon and through our website, www.

GrandmaDingley.com/. Swan Lake and Peer Gynt are in production, and the next step is live performance… watch this space!”

I then looked around for some star power - high-quality voices with a flair for comedy and a passion for classical music - and it was an enormous treat firstly to get Brian Blessed on board (‘…the loudest human being I’ve ever had in the studio…’) and then Rory Bremner not long after. They were both great fun to work with. At one point in the script Brian has to bellow the line, ‘I SHOULD BEAT YOUR PINK BUTTOCKS, YOU LYING LITTLE MONKEY’! Rory insisted on taking that clip away with him to use as his mobile ring tone!

THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011 | PAGE 25

Trombonist’s Island Discs

Trombonist’s Island Discs BTS Treasurer David Carnac runs his own independent financial services business. He graduated from the Guildhall School of Music in the mid 80s and after a few years working as a freelance trombonist he decided to join the financial services industry.

Fellow executive board member Stewart Drummond caught up with David and asked about his musical influences, where it all started and, of course, what discs have marked his musical journey.

“Musically it all began when I was 11 years old. In my secondary school - a secondary modern school in a hard working-class area - the late Norman Trotman, then Head of Brass for the Bromley Music Service, somehow managed to spot a modicum of talent from my feeble attempts to make a buzzing noise from a cornet mouthpiece. I was then dispatched home with a cornet much to the ‘joy’ of my parents. A week later, after playing a far better low C than middle G, Norman moved me onto the tenor horn; a few months later I moved onto the euphonium and after about a year I did my Grade 5. There were a few more lads the same age as me who played music too, and through the activities of a very good concert band and symphony orchestra we seemed to spend a considerable proportion of our school time playing music together all over the borough. During this period, I went to see many concerts at the Royal Festival Hall, as it was not a particularly arduous journey from South East London. One concert that really stands out for me was Woody Herman’s Big Band in 1977: Woody Herman & The New Thundering Herd, live at Carnegie Hall was recorded on the same tour.

This disc might not be a choice that is so popular with my parents - they met at classical music appreciation classes but it made a lasting impression on me.

I took up the trombone aged 13 or 14 and was sitting between two much taller trombonists as I played my first ever notes in a symphony - the A and F at the start of the 2nd trombone part in Brahms’ 3rd Symphony - which made me fall in love with both the sound and feel of playing in an orchestra. If I needed a reason to have a box set of Brahms Symphonies on my desert island then this would be it, but really no explanation is required - they are just a wonderful set of works. I own several box sets, but if I had to choose just one it would have to be Sir Simon

Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic’s recent Live set: they really are just superb.

My parents are mammoth classical music listeners. Dad would bring home some new vinyl discs most pay days. I heard a lot of Wagner for sure but it was Mahler’s music that really enraptured me - I would like to have a box set of Mahler symphonies on my desert island, particularly of Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic orchestra, recorded in the 1980s. During my time at Guildhall, I was privileged to be conducted

by Bernstein and he just pours his heart and soul out through these performances.

I was very fortunate to keep very good company in my school and student days. I was privileged to be at Guildhall with many fabulous trombonists and, coupled with the teaching and coaching of Peter Gane, Denis Wick and Eric Crees (and Les Lake beforehand) this helped me achieve somewhere near my maximum musical potential. Even before I went to college - in the ‘Bromley yoof’ - we formed a ten-piece brass ensemble, directed by former London Philharmonic Orchestra 2nd trumpet player, Mike Clothier, who lived in the local area. I was playing 1st trombone in a dectet or quintet alongside some players who have gone on to have wonderful careers. Andy Crowley and I would go and listen to the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble at any opportunity.

One concert that stands out in my memory - and I suspect also to anyone who was there - was the PJBE’s concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, where they performed Elgar Howarth’s arrangement of William Walton’s Spitfire Prelude and Fugue. The PJBE’s studio recording of Howarth’s arrangement of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition would have to come with me to my desert island - not only because it is wonderful to listen to but because it would also remind me of the fun and musical stimulation I had playing various dectet and quintet repertoire with such a talented group of young musicians.

Two other albums that I would have to take with me, simply because I drool with envy at the quality of the trombone playing within them, are Urbie Green’s Senor Blues album and the LSO Live recordings of Sibelius’s 3rd and 7th symphonies. It’s somewhat ironic that, as a trombone student who listened to so much jazz, I really

David Carnac hardly played any. I realise now that it would have been wise as a student to broaden my playing activities - isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing! Green’s album is simply breathtaking; as a player he makes it sound so easy.

Dudley Bright was appointed principal trombone of the Philharmonia orchestra just before I went to college and became principal trombone of the London Symphony Orchestra in 2000. Twenty-five or so years on from my college days, this LSO Live CD of Sibelius Symphonies was recorded.

What a sublime (trombone-tacet) slow movement in the 3rd Symphony, and what a sound Dudley makes in the 7th Symphony. The ‘LSO Live’ series really is a phenomenal example of the quality of British orchestras.

I suppose my story is slightly different as I didn’t even touch my trombone for nearly 20 years whilst I devoted time to building my business. I have always believed that if you are going to do something then you have to give it 100 percent, so that if it doesn’t work out in the end then at least you can look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘well, I did all I could’. Nowadays, with many regular clients and a professional reputation acquired over 20 years in the business, it felt right to get back into playing the trombone and performing music. Whether within the professional circuit or amongst the elite of the amateur orchestral scene, I’ve always found musicians to be some of the best company possible. I guess, even during my long sabbatical, I’ve always been a musician and trombonist at heart. Indeed, one of my clients - a professional musician - once said to me: “David, you’re just like one of us - it’s just that your case usually has a laptop in it rather than an instrument.”

Hopefully these tracks give a little insight into my musical tastes. I just hope that on my desert island there would be a fantastic quality HiFi on which to play the discs...”

THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011 | PAGE 27

BRASS FESTIVAL

Trinity Laban Brass Experience 2011 The annual Brass Festival of the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance ran from the 12–21 April and featured a wealth of concerts, competitions, masterclasses and projects. This year we were very pleased to showcase one of our Artists in Residence, Øystein Baadsvik, the sensational Norwegian tuba soloist.

The festival kicked off with a concert in the beautiful Old Royal Navel College Chapel in Greenwich on 12 April. The student brass ensembles were led by the young, dynamic conductor Tom Hammond, who maintains strong links with the Trinity Laban music faculty. The programme included music by Gabrieli and Holst’s Concertante for Trombone and Organ. Two contemporary pieces were also performed, one of which was written by Trinity composition student Liam Mattison and the other, a surroundsound work that involved almost every brass student simultaneously, by composer Gordon Carr. The concert was greatly enjoyed by the audience and students alike, and certainly got the Brass Experience off to a flying start.

Two days later Trinity Laban trumpet students were put through their paces as they were joined for the day by the trumpet section of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The morning began with the students each doing a mock orchestral audition, and this was followed by an informative workshop on section playing. This event was very kindly sponsored by Stomvi Trumpets who held an exhibition alongside Prozone Music during the day.

The celebrated Philip Jones Brass Ensemble Competition took place on 18 April at the Blackheath Halls, which is a stunning concert venue. This prestigious competition, held in memory of the trumpet legend and former principal of the Trinity College of Music, was one of the highlights of the week. This year’s judge Paul Denegri, Head of Brass at Wells Cathedral School, heard nine

PAGE 28 | THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011

different ensembles compete, ranging from trombone and tuba quartets to various brass quintets. Trafalgar Brass, a young brass quintet, were crowned this year’s winners, and the consistent high standard of performance and wide range of music made this year’s competition particularly enjoyable.

Two events took place on 20 April, namely a tuba masterclass with Baadsvik and the Big Brass Blast lead by Trinity students, staff and Graham Lee. The latter was an all day event involving brass players of all ages and abilities from the local area, and culminated in an informal performance at the end of the day inspired by music from the festival.

The finale of the Brass Experience was the Trinity Laban Brass Massive. This event featured the Hampshire County Youth Brass Band who launched the concert with a splendid opener, Alfred Reed’s evocative El Camino Real. This was closely followed by Baadsvik’s signature solo piece, Fnugg Blue, accompanied by the Trinity Laban Brass Band, which was a great hit with the audience. After the interval we heard another stunning performance from Trafalgar Brass, the PJBE competition winners, and a captivating contribution from NuTuba, a new student ensemble. This was

followed by two pieces for symphonic brass ensemble, first an arrangement of Korngold’s The Seahawk then Michael Daugerty’s Motown Metal, featuring student trombonist Chris Augustine. To bring this fantastic concert to a close Baadsvik and Oren Marshall played an impressive virtuosic duet of Norah Jones’s hit song Don’t Know Why, accompanied by tuba and euphonium students. This demonstrated the amazing abilities of these two tuba stars and left the audience buzzing – what a perfect way to end ten inspiring days of brass playing.

Written by Trinity Laban brass student Nick Prince

Trombonists Abroad

From Across the Atlantic Diane Drexler is the recently appointed Managing Editor of the International Trombone Association Journal. She outlines the publication stages of the journal, some of the challenges she faces and also what she most enjoys about the whole process.

I have been the Managing Editor for the ITA Journal for just under a year now. I took over from the previous editor, Claire Brantley, in May 2010.

The Managing Editor job for the ITA Journal is a part-time assignment. Currently, my full-time occupation is as the Managing Editor and Production Manager for the Wisconsin Historical Society Press, where I manage the editing, design, production of all press publications. Many of the skills I use in my job with the society, to produce books and a quarterly historical journal for publication, complements the work I do for the ITA Journal.

The first step in putting together an issue of the journal is to decide which articles to publish. I have a team of seven editors that I work with - two feature editors and five column editors - who either submit regular columns for publication or who look for general features that are of interest to our audience. I am very lucky to be working with a superb staff who regularly submit excellent articles for consideration.

There are a few articles which arrive in my inbox unsolicited. These are then reviewed for writing quality and potential appeal to the ITA audience. In some cases the articles need some revision or tweaking in order to best fit the style of the ITA Journal. In these cases, I will work with the authors suggesting revisions, or have them work with one of the feature editors, until the article pleases us both.

I also work with a number of other ITA programme directors to feature content in the journal, such as information about awards, competitions, the International Trombone Festival and the International Trombone Week, to name but a few.

The biggest challenge in creating a combination of articles to publish in each issue of the journal is the vast diversity in the audience of the ITA. Members in the ITA come from all over the world and are at all levels of performance and teaching. Their interests can range from auditioning to profiles of famous trombonists, from repertoire to gigging, from classical music to jazz, and so on. It is also challenging to fit in all the submitted articles in a timely manner with only four issues per year and a limited number of pages available.

One of the nicer features of the ITA Journal is the photos that accompany the articles. I work with a wonderful designer who makes the most of all submitted images to make the layouts appealing and the photos stand out. Most authors will submit photos to use with their articles. I rarely have to do research to find appropriate images.

Once all the articles have been submitted and edited, I send all the text and images to the journal’s designer. The designer makes up all the pages of the journal, balancing content with ads and deciding how many pages we will need to print. When the pages are made up, they come back to me for proofreading. I send them along to the editors to review to make sure we haven’t introduced any errors. With all the corrections made, then the whole thing is shipped to the printer. As neither myself, the editors, or the designer live in the same geographic area, all of this work is done electronically.

Once the current issue is at the printer, it’s time to start thinking about the next issue. With four issues a year, we are always working on one and looking ahead to the next one or two and we’re always looking for that next great trombone article!

For more information please visit www.ita-web.org/.

THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011 | PAGE 29

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INTONATIONS

Audition Technique Matthew Gee left the Royal College of Music in 2005 to take up the position of principal trombone with the Orchestra of Scottish Opera where he remained for nearly four years. He is currently principal trombone with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Matt shares with The Trombonist his expertise on preparing for orchestral auditions.

“Having been lucky enough to spend much time on both sides of an audition desk, I feel well placed to give a brief insight into the unique situation that surrounds taking an audition and offer a few ideas that have brought me a modicum of success throughout my career to date.

It was not many years ago that I walked into an audition, trombone still in its case having foregone a warmup, played the opening phrase of the David, thanked the panel for their time, packed-up and left. It turns out that spending the previous evening blowing up balloons with the intention of making balloon animals was rather detrimental to my stamina! On another occasion, I took ‘practice room form’ into the audition and delivered what must have been a near ‘perfect’ audition, only to be told that my interpretation of Mozart’s Requiem was too ‘romantic’ and I could therefore not proceed to the next round. I can only conclude that playing the ‘perfect’ audition, that is not only to perform to a standard higher than the panel expects, but also that the essence of your sound and musical concepts are in tune with theirs, is virtually impossible.

There is no magic formula; preparation is the key.

It is important to see an audition as a ten-minute showcase. Sit down and ask yourself what exactly the panel are looking for. The answer will be different for every audition, whether it be for a place in your local brass band or a seat in a professional orchestra, and will even vary depending on the country in which you are auditioning. Generally, the outcome of the audition will be decided as soon as you leave the room, so everything that happens within those ten minutes are crucial: walk into the room with a smile, greet the panel with a handshake and, in particular, look after your tuning note and the opening phrase of your piece - first

impressions are everything, and you must tailor your practice accordingly.

Candidates that remain clear in my mind, post-audition, are those who played with an exceptionally strong knowledge of style, unwavering accuracy and, where appropriate, pushed the extremes of their dynamic range. More importantly still is their responsiveness. If you listen to any of the top orchestral players, they have the ability to apply different colours and articulations to any phrase at the drop of a hat. If the panel ask you to play something again and slightly differently, do not assume that you played it badly - it is more likely that they wish to see if you can adapt to a new style quickly without any fuss. No matter at what level you are playing, realising these objectives are not overly ambitious; they are the grounding of every well-respected trombone player.

Lets suggest you have an hour a day set aside for practice, one month prior to the audition: Week one: Divide the hour between practising the piece, and general practise of the excerpts. Research and work out the style each requires, and practise adjusting your sound and articulation as necessary. Play the same excerpt in more than one style.

Week two: Start performing the piece.

Note the bits that need more work and practise them. Make a spreadsheet listing all of the excerpts. Play them only once and place a tick or cross next to them depending on whether you thought they were good enough.

Develop the habit of setting yourself a tempo and then checking it in your head; immerse yourself in the style of the excerpt as though you had been playing the entire work. Practise the excerpts that you thought were not good enough.

Week three: Keep performing the piece. Adjust the order of the excerpts to make them as difficult as possible.

For example, play Tannhäuser with a huge sound, and follow it with limited rest by a quiet, chamber orchestral rendition of Brahms’ 1st Symphony.

Week four: Warm-up like you would on the audition day and play a mock audition, preferably at the allotted time of your actual audition. If possible repeat this a few times throughout the day.

Get used to playing in 10-15 minute slots, focusing as much as possible. It is

surprisingly tiring when you really put everything into it.

This practice plan aims to gradually incorporate the structure of an audition into your practice and to maximise your delivery within the allotted time.

Remember, you need to make the panel as comfortable as possible during the audition. For example, rushing throughout William Tell is certain to be picked up by the panel and be unnerving to listen to, so practise it with a metronome for the first couple of weeks. I write trigger words above every excerpt, which helps me to enter into the style as quickly as possible, whether it be ‘slide technique’ above William Tell or ‘timelessness’ above Schumann’s 3rd Symphony. They act as a brief but essential reminder that you must instantaneously enter the sound world of that excerpt.

When it comes to preparing for an audition it is all about common sense. Nowadays I do as much practise without a trombone in my hand as I do with one, as it is far kinder on the ‘chops’ and allows you to think musically without bearing any of the anxieties every player feels whilst taking that first breath. It has taken me many auditions over six years as a professional trombone player to realise that you have to keep things simple.

I alluded to luck early on in this article, and it is with regard to this that I will finish. For the week leading up to a mock audition I had been on holiday and not picked up my trombone; on the day itself I had a shocking hangover, but was lucky enough to have one of ‘those days’ and deliver quite a classy performance. A close friend who had quite rightly worked considerable harder, but had played a bit of a shocker, grumpily reminded me that ‘even the sun shines on a dog’s a***’! With hindsight, the best advice I can give is to go into auditions as prepared as possible, and if it feels like it is your day, roll the dice and take some risks.”

Matthew Gee

THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011 | PAGE 31

SLIDE RULE

Baker’s Swiss Role

Brett Baker Stadthaussaal, Winterthur, 27 March 2011 Black Dyke’s principal trombonist Brett Baker appeared as guest soloist with Brass Band Winterthur in Switzerland at its annual Gala Concert in the Stadthaussaal on Sunday evening 27 March. Following on from the successful visits of Richard Marshall and David Thornton, Brass Band Winterthur was able to invite another star performer from the British banding scene for its 2011 event.

The programme included no less than four solo items, namely The Blue Bells of Scotland, Charlie Chaplin’s Smile, Arthur Pryor’s Fantastic Polka and Ray Farr’s arrangement of Close to You. In fact, the audience was so enthralled that it insisted on an encore, so Baker rattled off an unaccompanied version of variations on Annie Laurie to the delight of the public.

The solos were interspersed with the band playing R. B. Hall’s march Death or Glory, A Malvern Suite by Philip Sparke – played especially to make the soloist feel even more at home – Libertango from Astor Piazolla, Deep Harmony and music from the 2005 remake of King Kong.

An enthusiastic audience responded with rapturous applause for the superb playing throughout the evening.

Ian Keeble

Never Alone

Ben van Dijk & Friends Medium: CD Discs: 1 Label: BVD Music Productions For his fourth and latest solo album, Ben van Dijk continues to champion new music by featuring seven of his more recent commissions for bass trombone and ensemble. The accompanying forces vary from flamenco guitar to brass band in a well-judged variety of musical styles.

As we have come to expect, van Dijk sounds very assured throughout and I find it comforting in a world of increasing uniformity that one can still hear differences between national styles of trombone playing; the soloist brilliantly showcases the warmth and fine control of the Dutch method, not to mention the high compositional standard of his countrymen Ilja Reijngoud and Steven Verhelst, along with Spaniard, Vicente Egea.

Our attention is grabbed by the opening Intrada, which demonstrates the effectiveness of multi-tracking between two well-matched players (van Dijk and Martin van den Berg). We then move to the title work of the album, which is an extended, meandering ballad for bass trombone and quartet; this ensemble is formed of ex-students of the Rotterdam Conservatory who are now top professionals in the Netherlands and Germany. The innately musical accompaniment they give felt absent in the next track, Concertino, for solo bass trombone and string orchestra.

A live violin is used, backed by a synthesized string orchestra; this creates a spookily realistic pizzicato, but I found the computerised arco sound a distraction from van Dijk’s virtuosic performance. The quartet rejoins the soloist for the infectious rhythms of Rapsodia Flamenca and are augmented to a sextet for the Capriccio. The

PAGE 32 | THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011

latter is a catchy composition that demonstrates the value of teamwork – the excellent quality of intonation and dovetailing within the ensemble simply has to be heard to be believed! The forces increase still further for My Spanish Heart and the sound of the Amsterdam Brass Band is a welcome treat: they provide a sensitive accompaniment to the soloist during the extended cadenza-like passages whilst shining in their own right for the tutti sections. Finally, van Dijk is joined by his youngest son Erik on the flamenco guitar for the self-penned Cancion para Cas, an upbeat lullaby for his first grandson scored for two guitars and tenor trombone.

In striking the balance between the musical message and technical perfection I find the latter triumphs occasionally in the larger ensembles; my overwhelming impression though is one of satisfaction with a well-thought-out and varied album which showcases a still-neglected solo instrument.

Christian Jones

Harlem Nocturne

Brett Baker Ratby Cooperative Band / Mike Fowles Medium: CD Discs: 1 Available to buy online from the World of Brass and Midland CD Brett Baker needs no introduction. Educator, recitalist, member of Black Dyke Band, BTS President and conductor, Baker is a multi-faceted musician and the most recorded trombonist of his generation. Harlem Nocturne is the latest CD in his prolific output.

The album opens with John Kenny’s Fanfare played unaccompanied over sustained piano strings, which shows Baker’s mastery of the range of the instrument and the inventiveness of the composer. The title track follows in complete contrast to the Fanfare and aptly demonstrates Baker’s ability to quickly change musical styles, though for me the work does not capture the dark images that are portrayed in the original big band and alto saxophone solo.

This is neatly followed by a romp through the Eric Coates classic, The Dam Busters. This is a première recording and while the main theme is present throughout, the added air varie elements do seem a little excessive despite being skilfully played by band and soloist alike. Alan Fernie’s arrangement of Over the Rainbow is a familiar ballad that works excellently well and is long overdue for inclusion in the trombone repertoire. Bone Apart is a classic air varie waltz that highlights Baker’s exceptional technique. Georgia, arranged by Goff Richards and one of my favourite tracks on this CD, gives the soloist the opportunity to extemporise over a given theme in the middle eight section and Baker carries this off with grate panache. Caprice for Trombone by Bram Wiggins comes next and is a complete contrast to the programme so far – a real tour de force for band and soloist alike. The following arrangement by Irish composer Richard Rock of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, second movement, is a thinly scored work that needs a delicate touch; the band intricately accompanies Baker’s lyric, sensitive playing in the higher register. Howard Snell is a master conductor and arranger and this simple offering of the delightful tune Londonderry Air, featured on this album, is uncluttered and

SLIDE RULE

refreshing. Sadly, however, Mark Freeh’s arrangement of Green Bee does not come off, though the technical ability shown is second to none.

Back now to the air varie strain with a première recording of Dr. Roy Newsome’s Oberland Variations – certainly not for the feint hearted! Adrian Drover’s skilful arrangement of My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose is very similar in style to his Street Scene or Chelsea Bridge arrangements; Baker carries the genre well in this. Aubade by Kevin Bolton was written for Roz Davies of the Hallé Orchestra; a very dramatic opening turns into an exciting dance – not unlike Gareth Wood’s Dance Sequence – after which a slow ballad section leads back into the fast dance that culminates in a fanfare finish. The final track Annie Laurie, unaccompanied, is simply Baker doing what he does best – making difficult music sound simple. This party piece is sure to become a favourite and is a tasteful close to an eclectic mix of music.

Musical Director Mike Fowles and the Ratby Co-operative Band deserve high commendation for giving Baker a solid yet tasteful palette within which to weave a colourful selection of music; the band never overshadows but sensitively supports Baker’s stylistic playing throughout.

All in all this mix of trombone solos are all well played and executed. What another great addition to an extensive discography.

Richard Walker

When I Walk Alone Lito Fontana Fautso Quintabà, piano Hans Gansch, flugelhorn Medium: CD Discs: 1 Label: CD Baby Cat. No.: 374811

I have admired Lito Fontana as a trombone player for a number of years and was very pleased to hear that he had recorded a solo CD in 2010. He was born in Buenos Aires and started his first studies at the age of seven on the classical guitar. After moving to Italy at the age of eleven he began studying trombone at the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro; his career as an orchestral trombone player and soloist started soon after. Fontana is especially well known as the solo trombone player of Brass Band Fröschl Hall and of the Brass Band Oberösterreich in Austria (together with soloist Hans

Gansch) with which he reached third place in the European Brass Band Championships in 2010 in Linz. Especially important and formative was Fontana’s cooperation with the Austrian composer, Werner Pirchner, whose various film music he recorded, as well as the signature tune of Radio Austria International, the fanfare of the Wiener Festwochen and the music transmitted during the intermission of the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert in 2000.

The title track, When I Walk Alone by Jan Hadermann, is a great chart to sit and relax to. The flugel playing of Hans Gansch is used to great effect here. This CD also contains a number of new and interesting repertoire items including Oblivion, which I remember buying many years ago as a duet for violin and cello; Colours by Bert Appermont; and Three Jazz Moods by Elizabeth Raum. Raum certainly has produced some excellent repertoire over the past few years but is probably best known for her solo item Fantasy for Trombone. Three Jazz Moods is a worthy addition to solo repertoire and Fontana captures the moods of each movement superbly. Sonata by Stjepan Šulek is a personal favourite of mine and has a very challenging piano accompaniment that causes no problems for accompanist Fautso Quintabà. Šulek was from Yugoslavia and is best known for forming the Zagreb Radio Chamber Orchestra.

His Sonata was commissioned by the International Trombone Association and dedicated to William F. Cramer. Fontana moves from light to serious music very naturally on this album. Fantastic Polka is perhaps the piece that brought Fontana to the forefront of brass band players with his performance of this solo in Switzerland with Brass Band Oberösterreich. The next four compositions on this CD are duets by Pirchner performed with Hans Gansch and are played superbly, though I think the pieces would have sat better in the middle of the CD or interspersed within the rest of the repertoire, rather than being included in one large block. Nevertheless the playing between the two artists is stunning. Fontana ends the CD with a rendition of Robin Dewhurst’s Brasilia – a great piece that really should be played more often.

Fontana’s sound is pure and consistent throughout the range and the trombone and piano are perfectly balanced with one another. Congratulations to Fontana and the production team for manufacturing a very impressive addition to solo trombone albums. I highly recommended this CD as a fine example of very accomplished trombone playing.

Brett Baker

THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011 | PAGE 33

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EVENTS

Diary of Events 2011-2012 Sunday 26 June 2011 Royal Northern College of Music Brass Band Day, featuring Stephen Sykes, the RNCM Brass Band, Black Dyke Band Quartet, Bob Hughes, Adrian Morris and Brett Baker 124 Oxford Road Manchester M13 9RD Contact: president@britishtrombonesociety.org

Sunday 10 July 2011 Yorkshire Area BTS Day Leeds Education Service Featuring the Black Dyke Band Quartet The West Park Centre Spen lane Leeds W. Yorks LS16 5BE Contact: president@britishtrombonesociety.org

Wednesday 27 July 2011 National Event: BTS Ensemble Recording Birmingham Conservatoire of Music Paradise Place Fletchers Walk Birmingham West Midlands B3 3HG Contact: president@britishtrombonesociety.org

Saturday 30 July 2011 National Event: BTS Society Dinner Birmingham City Centre Meet at ‘The Moon and Sixpence’, Broad Street (opposite the Symphony Hall) between 6–7.30pm.

Contact: president@britishtrombonesociety.org

Sunday 11 September 2011 Featuring the Black Dyke Band Quartet and Brett Baker Porthywaen Silver Band Hall Porthywaen Oswestry Shropshire SY10 8LX Contact: president@britishtrombonesociety.org

Sunday 18 September 2011 Wessex Trombone Day, featuring Steven Hayes, John Pritchard and Brett Baker Pimperne Village hall Near Blandford Forum DT11 8UZ Contact: Wessex@britishtrombonesociety.org

Sunday 4 October 2011 East Anglia Trombone Day and Annual General Meeting Oundle School Oundle Peterbrough PE8 4GH Contact: eastanglia@britishtrombonesociety.org

Sunday 29 January 2012 Huddersfield University Trombone Day School of Music, Humanities and Media Creative Arts Building The University of Huddersfield Queensgate Huddersfield HD1 3DH Contact: president@britishtrombonesociety.org

Saturday 4 February 2012 Bristol Easton Trombone Day tba

Sunday 12 February 2012 BTS Northwest Workshop Peel Hall University of Salford Salford M5 4WT

Saturday 24 March 2012 BTS Bromley Trombone Day tba

Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 May 2012 BTS National Event, featuring special guests from the USA, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Welsh National Opera trombone sections, and the RWCMD trombone choir.

Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama Castle Grounds Cathays Park Cardiff CF10 3ER Contact: Kevin.Price@rwcmd.ac.uk; colby@hotmail.co.uk; president@britishtrombonesociety.org

Monday 28 to Wednesday 30 May 2012 Christian Lindberg at the RCMD Cardiff Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama Castle Grounds Cathays Park Cardiff CF10 3ER Contact: Kevin.Price@rwcmd.ac.uk

THE TROMBONIST | SUMMER 2011 | PAGE 35

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