Other News about Fine Arts Brass
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See our Out and About page for recent photos of FAB
...and here's some older news
- Simon Hogg has stepped down..
- FAB @ the Zurich Festival, July 2004
- FAB on the Box on Christmas Day 2004
- Eddie McGuire gives us a title for the new piece
- Some familiar faces return to the fold!
Simon Hogg has stepped down..
After 24 years occupation of the trombone chair in Fine Arts Brass, Simon Hogg has stepped down to become Head of Brass at Warwick School. Simon has been in his new teaching position since September 2003 but has found it increasing difficult juggling Fine Arts Brass’ diary with that of the school. As a result his appearances in Fine Arts Brass over the past six months have become less and less and so he has decided to hand the reigns over to another. Many of you attending our concerts since January will have noticed a variety of different players occupying the trombone position and as a result we are hoping to appoint a permanent replacement shortly, although we know that Simon will be a hard act to follow!
With Simon’s departure from Fine Arts Brass we’ll lose the last remaining original member since the group’s formation in 1980. However, as can be read on this page, many of the old faces keep popping up - as we know Simon’s will. He has already offered to deputise whenever we require a trombone player, so we don’t think it’ll be too long before we see him playing with the group again!
FAB @ the Zurich Festival, July 2004
Founder member, Stephen Roberts, writes a few words...
Our performances at the Zurich Fest this year were a resounding success. It is always great to work with our old friends in the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, but our Switzerland trip this year was made all the more special as we had the pleasure of founder horn player Stephen Roberts as our conductor and arranger for the concerts. Stephen writes a few words about the trip:
And so a wheel turns full circle. It’s back to Zurich with the Fine Arts Brass after a gap of four or more years. However, this time there are six of us and that takes a bit of getting used to! My job this time around is to keep the FABE and Zurich Chamber Orchestra together by wielding a baton instead of a horn. Yes, to quote my ex-teacher Alan Civil, I have 'turned'. FABE have played with ZKO on several occasions and it was time for some new repertoire; so we put together a variety of new arrangements including Mozart’s Eine Kleine Blechmusic, some Piazzola and Chick Corea as well as favourites by Gershwin and Handel. The three concerts were held by the lakeside in suitably festive surroundings. The Zuri Fascht is held every four years and attracts a million people. A huge display of fireworks is lit up on each of the three nights of the festival and concerts are given by a wide variety of artists, from hip-hop to classical. How good it is to see the FABE thriving and blossoming with new talent and young blood. It can’t be almost twenty-five years ago since we first rehearsed in the Barber Institute of Fine Arts at Birmingham University – can it? Back ‘on tour’ things haven’t changed much in twenty -five years. Those intended early nights which never materialize, the flight delays, the buzz of the concerts and the sharing of good food and humour. All those things remain the same and a good thing too! Keep it up guys. You go from strength to strength and it was a privilege to share those moments with you, even if I didn’t blow a note!
FAB on the Box on Christmas Day 2004
For the third year running you'll be able to see us on the TV at Christmas. Last year we played in the Christmas Eve Midnight Mass live on BBC 1 from Ely Cathedral and the Songs of Praise Christmas Special from Gloucester Cathedral. This year we shall be playing live on BBC 1 on Christmas day morning from 10am. The best news for us is that the programme is on home territory this time - Coventry Methodist Central Hall so we really will be 'home in time for tea!' - or Christmas lunch at least. It's also another opportunity to work with our old friend Paul Leddington Wright as he'll be producing the programme.
Eddie McGuire gives us a title for the new piece
It's called Auriga.....
Eddie made contact with us in April to say the piece was coming on really well and he had a title for us at last. It's going to be called Auriga with a subtitle of 'The Five Stars'. Auriga is a star constellation - visible with it's stars forming a 5 pointed pentangle. It also means 'charioteer' so that should create some exciting music for us to play. We are to premiere this work at our Carlisle Summer Music Festival performance in the Cathedral on July 13th 2004.
Some familiar faces return to the fold!
Stephen Roberts & Richard Sandland set to return.
As the old saying goes, "you can't keep a good man down!" or in our case - "you can't keep good men down"! We're very happy to report that two former members of Fine Arts Brass, Stephen Roberts and Richard Sandland are to return to the fold, but in different capacities. Richard Sandland has been into his loft of late, digging out his tuba in order to play with the ensemble again. Sam Elliott's commitments in his day job at Scottish Opera are such that he is unable to perform in some of our concerts in May, so we were delighted when Richard accepted our invitation to play with us again. You'll be able to hear him at our Festival performances in Honiton, Leamington and Perth this month. We've been busy rehearsing with him for quite a few weeks now and we can safely say he's lost none of that incredible talent on the tuba! It's a real pleasure to have him back on board again. Stephen Roberts is also returning to FAB but in the guise of arranger/conductor for our exciting appearance in the 2004 Zurich Festival with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. Stephen will be arranging all the music for our three concerts and conducting the orchestra in the performances over the 2nd - 4th July weekend.