The Latest About Fine Arts Brass
(last updated 9 May 2008)
See our Out and About page for recent photos of FAB
...and here's some older news
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- The Adventures of Toad Lives Again!
- FAB @ Dartington Summer School
- Arnold CD reviews
- Joseph Jongen CD
- Judith Bingham CD
- Fine Arts Brass at Dartington Summer School 2007
- John Woolrich to write again for FAB
- A New CD with Worcester Cathedral Choir
- Sir Malcolm Arnold's death is announced
- Catch us on Songs of Praise
The Adventures of Toad Lives Again!
To coincide with the hundredth year anniversary of the publication of Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows, we are going to revive Ilona Seckacz's 1992 FAB commission, ''The Adventures of Toad''. Ilona has very kindly agreed to revisit the piece she originally composed for FAB sixteen years ago and give it a 2008 makeover for a new generation of school children. In particular, this new version will have a more more 'hands on' approach for the children and will now see a role for a separate narrator aside from FAB. This new version will receive it's premiere at The North Wales Music Festival on September 22nd and will feature the Festival Director, Ann Atkinson, as the narrator. Ilona has now updated the programme note as follows: ''The Adventures of Toad is a descriptive piece of music for brass quintet and narrator, which includes lots of participation from a young audience. Taking ''The Wind in the Willows'' as its starting point, the piece follows the character of Toad who gets into many scrapes with his big ideas about caravans and motor cars. The story is narrated like ''Peter and the Wolf'' and the instruments and melodies represent characters and ideas from the book. The opportunities for audience participation include making sound effects, singing songs and playing basic percussion and recorders. There is also an opportunity for the children to take sides during the famous battle with the weasels.''
FAB @ Dartington Summer School
Katy writes about our first visit.....
From 19th-25th August this year, Dartington in Devon was hosting an Advanced Brass Course, and Fine Arts Brass had been invited to coach. Arriving at 2am after a drive down from a concert in Malvern perhaps wasn't an ideal start, but the week really got underway for us on the Sunday evening, with a concert in the Great Hall. This concert included 2 of our commissions from Philip Wilby, alongside some collaborations with Ensemble Bash (also in residence for the week) and some treats from the A-Z of Jazz disk. All this was designed to inspire our course attendees.
On the first morning we found we had a very small and select group to work with. This was apparently due to the fact that because we didn't have a class on the Sunday morning, all of our players had gone to join 'Rock Shop'! We raided the Fine Arts 'dot box' to accommodate the wide range of abilities we had to work with, and keep everyone interested. Some gentle persuasion from the course participants did mean that we had increasing numbers attending every day, which was great. In the afternoons, we had the chance to work with our own instruments - an opportunity to get more technical, give players individual attention, and of course deal with ensemble playing challenges.
More brass players arrived in Dartington during the week to make up the orchestral forces for Walton's Belshazzers Feast. To our delight, they came along and joined in the classes, bumping up the numbers, and allowing us to tackle much more interesting repertoire, whilst still involving the less advanced players. This culminated in a very productive and enjoyable morning playing through repertoire such as Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man, and Grieg: Funeral Music.
I think that the course participants all took something different away from the week, and it was also a good learning opportunity for Fine Arts Brass. We made the most of our time there, meeting David Bedford and inviting him to hear us perform his piece at RWCMD in November, and starting talks about possible future collaborations with other groups and composers. On reflection, Dartington was a good opportunity for us to meet other groups like ours, to reflect on how we conduct our education work, and to form new professional relationships for the future
Arnold CD reviews
Our new Malcolm Arnold CD has been gaining favorable reviews recently. Gramophone magazine has reviewed it in it's February 2007 edition and commented that it is a "cracking anthology.. immaculately prepared." Likewise, Goodmusic on line said "their brilliant performances must be considered definitive. Read more from both reviews here.
Joseph Jongen CD
Our recent recording with Philip Scriven and the Lichfield Cathedral Choirs in Joseph Jongen's Mass has been described by Gramophone magazine (Jan 07) as an "invaluable recording." The reviewer also said that "The Fine Arts Brass play with fire and verve" Read more about the recording here. Failing that, you can come and hear us play this work live in June 2007 when we perform again with David Drummond and the London Oriana Choir at St James' Church Piccadilly. More details available here.
Judith Bingham CD
We have been assured that the long awaited CD of Judith Bingham's choral and brass music with Fine Arts Brass and the BBC Symphony Chorus, conducted by Stephen Jackson, is to be finally released this month (January 07). Although this disc was recorded in May 2005, it has taken Naxos nearly two years to commercially release it. Having heard the first edit, we feel sure it'll be worth the wait.
Fine Arts Brass at Dartington Summer School 2007
We are to make our first appearance at Dartington in 2007. We have been engaged by the world renown International Summer School to undertake a series of master-classes, workshops and recitals recitals during the week of 19th August 2007. It'll be the first time that we have appeared at Dartington and we are looking forward to working in this intensive environment. Anyone interesting in the course with us in August should click here or contact Maisie Hunt on 01803 847083 for further information. A limited number of bursaries and scholarships will be available to those who cannot afford the fees but those wishing to apply need to do so by 6th April 2007 in order to qualify.
John Woolrich to write again for FAB
Our appearance in March for Cheltenham Contemporary Concerts will contain two world premieres; a work dating from 1993 but still to be premiered by Mark Edgley-Smith - "Fanfares for Forgotten Occasions" and "The Mechanical Operation of the Spirit" (2007) by John Woolrich. This is the second piece written for us by John Woolrich and although a little shorter than his first it will prove just as a much a challenge, we've no doubt. More details about the piece here and the concert here.
A New CD with Worcester Cathedral Choir
After our recent collaboration with Adrian Lucas and the Worcester Cathedral Choir in December 2006, we are to join the choir again for a CD of the wonderful music heard over those three consecutive Son et Lumiere concerts. The CD will be out in time for Christmas 2007. Watch this space for more details.
Sir Malcolm Arnold's death is announced
It is with great sadness that we hear today of Sir Malcolm Arnold's death. As many of you will know our latest CD (to be released next week) is the complete brass chamber music of Sir Malcolm Arnold. Our concert on October 1st at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham University was also to celebrate the composer's pending 85th birthday later in October in addition to our own 25th birthday anniversary. The concert will still be going ahead and will now be a special tribute to Sir Malcolm's life and work. The concert is at 3pm (click here for information) and tickets can be purchased directly from the Barber Institute on 0121 414 7333 or by
Catch us on Songs of Praise
- but not just yet......
We've just got back from Chester Cathedral after a weekend recording what will be two great shows for the BBC's flagship religious programme, Songs of Praise. It felt particularly odd playing 'We Three Kings of Orient Are' in the middle of June, but needs must when you record a programme a full six months before it's scheduled broadcast. The first show to be broadcast (recorded on Sunday 18th June) will be aired on BBC 1 on September 10th this year and the second (recorded on Monday 19th June and featuring school choirs from all around the UK) will get it's airing during Epiphany on January 7th 2007.
Press the valve to hear an MP3 of Fine Arts playing The Carnival of Venice from BBC Radio 2's Friday Night is Music Night.