In a programme celebrating Septura’s 10th anniversary, we were delighted to premiere a new commission by leading UK composer Roxanna Panufnik at the Wigmore Hall in London. Artistic Director Matthew Knight wrote in the programme: Septura was born out of a passion for the sound of brass instruments. We wanted to harness their intense emotional […]
At the end of the 2023-24 season Septura’s Founder, Simon Cox, decided to move on to new challenges outside the music industry. Simon will continue to play an important role in shaping Septura’s future – he’s joining the Board of Trustees. But he’ll no longer be playing in the group or involved in the day-to-day […]
It was hard to believe the last day of our tour had arrived – it had seemed so far away almost three weeks ago as we touched down in Atlanta. Since then we’ve zigzagged across this huge country, performed 12 concerts (with one cancellation), and encountered heavy snow, torrential rain, warm sunshine and (almost) tornadoes. […]
Basketball, Baseball and bottoms. Everyday feels like a Monday – we have been working very hard. Travelling, early starts, concerts and masterclasses. But now we were in the unprecedented situation of having TWO WHOLE DAYS OFF! The first day would largely be spent traveling to San Francisco, but the following day we were at our […]
Well rested after our Orono-Selinsgrove road trip stop off at Danbury, Connecticut we’re back on the road and heading for Susquehanna University. In the various masterclasses we’ve given over the last fortnight we often get asked how we cope with being away from home and spending so much time on the road. Bar the odd […]
In America everything is bigger: the portions are bigger, the cars are bigger, the pots of cheeseballs are bigger, and quite a few of the people are a little bit bigger. Things are also LOUDER. Fine for our Texas-educated Canadian colleague, but a strange and unfamiliar environment for six shy, weedy Europeans. We had been […]
“I left my pants at your hotel” is not usually the first sentence I utter on a typical Wednesday morning, but those were indeed my words as I attempted to track down a much-loved pair of navy travel chinos that I’d forgotten in Clemson the previous week. ‘Pants’ in America are of course what we […]
After a vintage Septura schlep (my alarm was set for 5am in Baltimore) we arrived in Huntsville 10 hours later (via 2 flights & a solid 2-hour drive) for the start of the Texas leg of the tour. Considering our indulgences at the reception in Baltimore the previous evening (thanks again to the Rosenbergs for […]
Our drive to Davidson was a mere 90 minutes – child’s play compared to some of the epic voyages of our last trip Stateside. With plenty of space in the schedule we stopped off at California Dreaming for lunch, and couldn’t resist trying such local delicacies as onion ring loaf and fried crab claws. It’s […]
It was two years since our last tour around the USA. The previous one – an epic ten day dash, many six hour drives, culminating in some remarkable, against-all-odds concerts – had left us with some great memories, but a little anxious as to what might be letting ourselves into this time. On paper it […]