With this being my first time in North America with my Septura colleagues, I had been forewarned of the vast distances we would be travelling between concert venues, and you join me for this blog entry just in time for one of the longest journeys of the trip. We commenced the 716 mile drive from […]
Regular readers of this blog will be aware of the Septura Travel Curse, which strikes without fail pretty much every time we go on tour. I’m pleased to say nothing has changed, and in fact this time we got started a little earlier than usual. With about 4 days to go our guest trumpeter Aaron […]
Since its launch in 2014, Septura has established a reputation as one of the world’s leading brass ensembles. Through a critically-acclaimed series of nine recordings for the Naxos label, the group has transcribed a counterfactual history of repertoire by composers from the last 500 years for brass septet, a brand new classical configuration. This repertoire […]
The weather. We often make fun of ourselves in the UK for being so obsessed with it. The last few days have demonstrated that if anything we don’t worry about it enough. We had been eagerly anticipating our debut in the Sounds of the Dolomites festival, which would see us trek high into the mountains […]
I don’t know anyone for whom getting to Luton airport is convenient, and an 8:40 flight required alarms to be set for 4-something-am throughout the group. It was the start of a long but exciting day. Rupert swung by to pick me up and chat immediately turned to England’s Cricket World Cup semi-final vs Australia. […]
Saturday 15th June began with a mild headache. The relief of getting through our first concert relatively unscathed so soon after a long journey meant that we allowed ourselves some time to celebrate and let our hair down on Friday evening. Dan, Sasha and I decided we would sample some world-renowned Japanese whisky, only to […]
I’ve just woken up in Tokyo all of a flutter – today is the day of Septura’s eagerly awaited Japanese debut!! My schedule (which I’ve been informed eagerly by Matthew Knight with his boyish grin, has a new, improved larger font compared to NZ🧐) tells me the lucky venue is the Koganei Miyaji Musical hall, […]
[Matt Gee]: The sun was out for our last morning in Wellington (and the last day of the tour). We all popped into Lamson, our new favourite hipster coffee joint, to sip Peruvian syphon coffee and devour kimchee and bacon scones just like the locals. A short but scenic trip to the airport led to […]
I first heard Walton’s Sonata for Strings during a youth orchestra trip to La Mortella, the beautiful home and gardens on the Italian island of Ischia that were the composer’s home. I was immediately gripped by the tension and energy of the piece, and it became a firm favourite of mine during the following years. […]
Just over two months since our triumphant return from the USA, and with the group’s members all looking a little leaner as a result(!), it was back to work for our third series of Kleptomania concerts: this time, “Borrowed Baroque”. Among the programme of core brass septet classics (selections from Rameau’s Dardanus, Prokofiev’s Suite and […]