3 concerts in 4 days

Just a update post as the title says it all really - I've been to see 3 concerts in 4 days and I wasn't in any of them! The joys of a relatively quiet week meant I had time to watch them all.

Thursday evening was the Trinity Laban Symphony Orchestra at Blackheath Halls and the highlight of the programme was Shostakovich Symphony no. 11. A very powerful piece of music which grabs the listeners' attention at many points and some beautiful trumpet playing from the section of mainly 4th years. The first half was also interesting but I wasn't familiar with any of the pieces and I suppose "interesting" sums up how I felt about it. Always good to experience new music though even if it's not your cup of tea!

ACONCB when I was a member in
October 2013

On Friday I travelled to Bishop's Stortford for the Air Cadet National Concert Band "The Big Screen" Concert. This band is very special to me as I was a member for 4 years and it was one of the key elements towards my progression as a trumpet player - I owe them a lot! The band played a great selection of music very well from a variety of films, although Les Mis will forever be my favourite. Despite this, the highlight of this evening was actually the incidental music during the interval. 5 of the boys had formed a barbershop group and my brother sang a solo! *cue proud big sister moment* It was the first time I've properly heard him sing and it was such a treat. Next step is convincing him to do a duet with Dad...

The third concert was the English Schools' Orchestra at Cadogan hall on Sunday afternoon. The principal trombone player is a friend of mine and the all-Russian programme sounded exciting so my flatmate and I went along to watch. I loved the opening of Shostakovich Festive Overture as I've never heard it played live and as some of you will know, it is an important trumpet feature - the best way to kick off a concert of course! This was followed by Rachmaninov Piano Concerto no.2, an absolutely gorgeous piece performed so beautifully by Cordelia Williams, winner of the BBC Young Musician Piano Competition. The second half wasn't quite as impressive as the first in my opinion, however Prokofiev's 5th symphony was still very engaging and enjoyable to listen to. (I realise I sound a bit like a wanna-be Classical music critic, that was unintentional, simply my opinion!)

So all in all, 3 very good concerts over a 4 day span, making Halloween that slight bit more bearable!

S x

Kids, the elderly and an audition

We've made it to reading week! Half term for all you lot at school and in theory, a week off for most university students so I hope you're all enjoying yourselves. So at Conservatoire we also get a "week off" provided we're not given any orchestra rehearsals or sectionals or one-off classes or assignments etc, you get the idea. Some of my mates have rehearsals all this week which means I have a lovely concert to watch on Thursday, but it sucks a bit for them as they don't get a break from the busy term...

Speaking of which, I have been far too busy to write this blog for over 2 weeks again! If you're wondering what the title has to do with this, here we go! I had a crazy Thursday where I was out of the house from 7.30am due to our Engaging Audiences assignment. As a group we had been creating a 40 minute concert for a class of school children to teach and inspire them about music and Thursday morning involved performing said "Engaging" concert 3 times between 9am and 12noon. As you can imagine, it was pretty hard work and I seriously admire primary school teachers! For many people, finishing at 12 meant they were done for the day at lunchtime, however I headed off straight to my placement working with the "Young at Heart" group. This week we were teaching them tempo and time signatures, attempting to use the power of dance to explain (I can't dance to save my life), as well as teaching them the Eidelweiss clapping game - YouTube it if you haven't seen it before - it can be very confusing! Finally after my placement I headed to Oxford Street for the launch night of the London wide CU mission week, which will take place in January. It was a lovely night meeting people from Christian Unions across London, listening to their experiences as Christians in the Capital's universities and singing God's praise! We also learnt about the ways to use "Uncover" - a book containing John's Gospel and 6 studies to help you understand it. I must say though, I was shattered by the time I got home at 10.30pm.

Friday was no easy day either as it was another early start, although it was equally fun. Camden music service has this amazing brass project running, with which I had the pleasure of helping out. Four classes of Year 5 and 6 pupils all learning brass instruments and playing pieces in harmony, true brass band style. I really take my hat off to the teachers and pupils alike and although I don't wish to pursue teaching as a full-time career, I definitely would love to be involved in one of these opportunities in the future! There are many articles about the benefits of music education (eg. https://www.facebook.com/BBCLookNorthYorkshire/videos/10153686480584626/ ) and it was evident in this school how keen and focused all the children were as they worked together to produce a brass band. Following such an exciting morning I went on a mission to get my trumpet serviced, but unfortunately the servicing guy had just gone home so I still haven't managed to get it done and Camden is a bit out of the way to travel regularly! Anyone got any suggestions for people who do brass services closer to South London? I'm having trouble with my valves becoming slow only a day after oiling them every time, and they get even worse in the cold...

On a positive note, my orchestral audition went well! At least I hope the panel thought so too. I'm pretty certain the fact they were behind a screen really helped as I wasn't particularly nervous compared to normal - it's strange how the psychological effects of a screen can vastly improve someone's trumpet playing. I was asked to play the opening of Mahler 5, Petrushka's Ballerina Dance and the beginning bit of Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture (transposing to Trumpet in Eb) and it was all over very fast after so much preparation. Funnily enough I quite enjoyed preparing those excerpts so I was lucky to have been asked the ones I like as I find it makes a difference to how you play something! One little tip I try to remember when playing Mahler 5 (although it has to be pretty loud) is *cue Yorkshire accent* "Never louder than lovely" as my brass teacher used to say. If you've never heard Mahler 5, that is my recommendation for you this week. I was supposed to see it live in concert on Sunday but I couldn't print my tickets, sad times :(

Random activity for this evening involved looking on EBay and every brass website possible at Eb/D trumpets as I would love to buy one... I promise I can justify it, there's more work and excerpts popping up which are just not playable on the Bb!

This post has taken me ages to write tonight for some reason, so the final exciting thing is that I'm venturing out into the world of new repertoire and have taken 2 new pieces out of the library to learn. The Hindemith Sonata - bog standard trumpet rep really, and Bozza's Frigariana. Both quite different to the style I usually play and quite a challenge but I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into them. Since I have failed miserably at images in this post, here's a picture of Felix Klieser, the no-armed French Horn player. He's amazing.

S x

It's October already?

Somehow we've managed to get half way into October and I just don't know where time is disappearing to - I've been so busy! It's amazing though, don't get me wrong, I'm glad the days and weeks don't drag. Oh by the way I'm listening to Stravinsky's Petrushka whilst writing this as I have an orchestral audition in a few weeks time, HELP!

So what have I actually been up to? Well other than the regular academic lessons, there have been quite a few exciting experiences (they just keep coming!) so I'll start chronologically since that makes sense... Thursday afternoon of last week was my first week back on a placement organised by Trinity with a "Young at Heart" group - a gathering of elderly people who we encourage to sing some songs or clap along to our playing. It's fairly slow-paced compared to kids but incredibly rewarding to see the smiles on their faces when they hear and see a real instrument being played in front of them. Soon the Christmas carols will be out to practice in preparation for their Christmas party in December!

Playing in the Royal Albert Hall in April -
didn't get any pictures at York, sorry.

I guess the next thing which spanned the whole of last weekend was actually a trip back to my homeland of Yorkshire with the All Soul's Orchestra. For those of you who haven't heard of them, they're a Christian orchestra based at All Soul's church, near Oxford Street. In April we performed at Prom Praise in the Royal Albert Hall and last weekend we were "on tour" doing a similar event, this time at the York Barbican on stage with St Aidan's School Chamber Choir, Beverley Trotman (from X factor 2007) and the Archbishop of York! It was an incredible event and such a blessing to perform alongside so many talented musicians, with my family as members of the audience. Returning to London on the Sunday afternoon after having been a visitor in Yorkshire was strange and everyone was pretty tired but all in high spirits after a successful weekend.
Most people were heading home for a relaxing evening in but not me - I had the privilege to go and see the West End Heroes concert at Dominion Theatre, a concert in aid of Help for Heroes consisting of West End Actors and military bands performing together. The main act was the RAF Central Band and since my ambition is a career in the RAF bands, this concert was just a perfect end to a fab weekend. My 4 friends and I absolutely loved it and we totally salute all the service men and women, especially those who have given their lives or been injured, a very moving evening, definitely recommend it.

Now finally, this Thursday just gone, my wonderful trumpet teacher was playing in a concert at the Barbican Centre (in London this time) with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The main reason I went there was because it was the only time we could fit a lesson in, but I'm a very lucky girl and was allowed to watch the afternoon rehearsal and the concert in the evening! What added to the excitement was that the first trumpet player had led our trumpet class at college the week before, so seeing him and my teacher perform in the same section was great!

To be honest, not much of this blog post has been about actual Life at Conservatoire but it's all interlinked right? At least that's what I tell myself. On a more conservatoire-y point, I have done loads of arranging for my brass quintet this week, I seem to have got the bug! If you're looking forward to hearing us perform at some point, Bare Necessities and The Entertainer may well be on the programme... Anyway enough of me nattering, I hope you're having a great term so far, if not, remember Christmas isn't that far away!

S x

First Week Back!

So happy! I've had such an amazing first week back and I can't get over how glad I am to be here, I really am blessed with this opportunity and to be somewhere I really enjoy! It has been crazy busy as to be expected but I love it like that, can't be doing with sitting around doing nothing... 

Well I guess you're wondering what it is that's made me so excited? To be perfectly honest, I can never be sure myself, however I'll give you an overview of my week and hopefully you can see why. Either that or you'll just think I'm a bit batty (which is also true).

Now to start off the week I was dreading the 9am Monday morning lecture of Musical Studies. My least favourite lecture at the worst time of the week. Last year we learnt about motets and madrigals and Renaissance music played mostly by men in posh company at banquets. Quite frankly, most weeks I was pretty close to hitting my head against the desk with my eyes closed. To my delight, this year we have progressed to the Classical era and Beethoven is the starting point - what a wonderfully strange man he is. Learning about his portrayal to us in the modern day and his struggle to create the infamous motif of his 5th symphony (which you MUST listen to if you haven't already), is so interesting, enormously improved by the engaging teaching of my new lecturer! In case anyone doesn't know, Beethoven started going deaf aged 28 and was totally deaf for the last 10 years of his life - how on earth did he still compose?! We've now jumped ahead 90 years to Mahler to compare his 5th symphony with Beethoven's. Again, an amazing symphony which you ought to listen to, even if only for the magnificent trumpet solo at the start, which I have just started to learn!

Young Beethoven - not nearly
as grumpy as we think!

Old Beethoven - portrayed as a really
 grumpy old man

So that was my first Monday back at Conservatoire... yes, I only had one lesson. Wooo welcome to uni life! Oh wait, it's a bit different here because we actually all play instruments. And we're supposed to practice them so yeah I did go home but I still did 2 more hours "work", essentially. Then I did some "proper work" (as in, I got paid) by teaching piano to my two lovely pupils!

Tuesday came round quickly and although there were no lessons scheduled, my quintet decided to have a rehearsal, which is always good fun! We're currently practising a West End Medley arranged for us by a friend and next week we'll hopefully have some tuition from a professional to help us improve it even more. Tip for ensembles - an outside pair of ears are incredibly helpful, especially if they know what they're talking about in terms of music. Here comes the super exciting bit... Tuesday evening was the EPIC concert of the RPO Brass Section with special guest Allen Vizzutti!! They played some pretty awesome repertoire (including Bach's Toccata and Fugue and a few of Vizzutti's own compositions) and this soloist never ceases to amaze me, as well as making everyone else wonder why they even bother playing the trumpet... I met him afterwards and was first in queue for a picture with the legend, possibly fangirled a little bit, don't judge me.

Picture with
Allen Vizzutti!

Back to earth the next day with another 9am start, this time it was Applied Musicianship. Things like harmony, chords, intervals, score reading, improvising and conducting are all covered in here so it literally is applying your musicianship and it can be quite fun really. We have a funky software to download which plays chords and intervals to us so we can practice at home as well, not that anyone particularly enjoys doing that in their spare time! (If you do and it's secretly your hobby, I apologise)

Now on to Thursday and Friday - Brass Band! I have no shame in saying this is my favourite large ensemble which is no surprise really as I grew up with brass banding. The two concerts we performed last week were simply lovely and my Dad was able to attend one of them and he thoroughly enjoyed listening to it. If anyone is interested, the concert at Charlton house is always recorded and uploaded to YouTube so have a search for "Royal Greenwich Brass Band".

That concludes my first week back at Conservatoire! Can you see why I love it so much? Some people may say it's a bit sad but we all have the things we love and I'm proud to share my experiences with others so that they might be inspired too. Hope you all had a great week too, "let music never die in us!" (A great quote I learnt from a friend last week)

S x

Freshers in second year

Since moving back to London...

So I departed my beloved Yorkshire village on Friday 4th September to return to this wonderful city in preparation for the start of freshers fortnight! I have had an amazing summer with the family and meeting up with old friends but it's time to continue the journey of a trumpet student at Conservatoire (that's music college for anyone who doesn't know. But not like sixth form. It's actually a degree course. Yes, music performance is a degree and a tough one at that!).

Since I returned I thought I'd quite like to share with the world what we actually get up to as it's pretty different to most unis and our schedules are quite frankly crazy. Very rarely are two weeks the same and you soon learn that a diary is your best friend and an essential item in your handbag/instrument case. The two are often interchangeable. 

Now for most first years, freshers is a time for partying hard, sleeping in late and slacking on the practice a bit if we're honest. Or at least I must admit I did that a bit, but I definitely couldn't hack every night for two weeks! I don't blame them really, it's a great chance to meet people in a place you are totally unfamiliar and enjoy the first few weeks whilst you don't miss home! 

This year, however, is a bit different. My friends and I tend to attend the more low-key events, or even organise our own occasionally (we all had Chinese take away together and had a potato peeling challenge...don't ask). There are fewer meetings for second years during freshers but the percentage of people practicing in the mornings has definitely increased! On Wednesday we even had our first quintet rehearsal of the year, which was wonderfully productive and great to play as an ensemble after 7 weeks of laborious lonesome summer holiday scales and technical exercises. It's great to have so much time on our hands, but we know it will be a shock to the system when term starts for real.

What do I do with all this time? Well besides practice, something else that has developed during my year so far at Conservatoire is my Christian faith. I hope no-one is foolish enough to stop reading simply because I said the word "Christian"? Exploring and talking about religion is such an important part of life I believe and especially in this vibrant, multicultural city, people need to be more accepting of others around them, myself included of course! The Christian Union where I study is made up of a great bunch of Christians from various walks of life and over the past week I have had the chance to spend more time with them than usual. We have prayer meetings, a picnic in the park, hand out water to those drunken freshers and today we had an international talk exploring the question "Is Christianity a Western religion?" I'd love to know your thoughts on this topic as we didn't go into much depth due to the unfortunate lack of international students who turned up. However, we did taste some fantastic home made Chinese food and planned our next CU events, so certainly not a waste of time! Whilst we're on the topic, my Vicar's wife just had a baby last week so although I'm not a particularly broody person I'm quite excited to meet her in a few weeks time!

I hope you've enjoyed this first blog post. I thought it'd be good to do as I was rereading my "Too Many Trumpets CoLab" blog from back in February and remembered how much I enjoyed it! Apologies for the lack of pictures and exciting stuff, we're only just getting started but while I get going, why don't you check out my website? www.sarahowensmusic.com (shameless plugging, whyever not).

S x