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