Septura on tour events

Tour blog

Japan (Part 3 – Kyoto & Mito) by Dan West

USA February 2023 (Part 2) by Matthew Gee

USA Autumn 2022 (Part 4) by Aaron Akugbo

Aaron here!! I’ve been given the honour of writing about the last couple stops of our tour. After a week of exclusively driving everywhere, our next stop, Belton, Texas, meant us taking our first domestic flight of the trip from New York to Dallas/Ft Worth International. And after a very sleepy/antisocial 150-mile drive to our […]

USA 2022 (Part 3) by Matthew Gee

The midpoint of our tour was our visit to NYC. This had much potential: we were performing in central Manhattan just down the road from Times Square, it was an early afternoon performance so we had some serious post show activities to plan, and we also had a free morning to explore or lounge about […]

USA 2022 (Part 2) by James Fountain

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 […]

USA 2022 (Part 1) by Simon Cox

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 […]

USA 2020 Part 8 (by Simon Cox)

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. […]

USA 2020 Part 7 (by Matthew Gee)

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 […]

USA 2020 Part 6 (by Alan Thomas)

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 […]

USA 2020 Part 5 (by Matt Knight)

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 […]

USA 2020 Part 4 (by Huw Morgan)

“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 […]

USA 2020 Part 3 (by Dan West)

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 […]

USA 2020 Part 2 (by Simon Cox)

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 […]

USA 2020 Part 1 (by Matthew Gee)

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 […]

Ossiach, Austria (by Dan West)

Day 3 started slowly, at least by Septura’s touring standards. We didn’t have an early airport call to contend with so a few of us began with a leisurely breakfast at the hotel in Bad Horn Meinberg. Others took the opportunity to catch up on some sleep or adhere to strict fitness regimes in the […]

Detmold, Germany (by Matthew Knight)

Septura’s 2019 season started with a 6 a.m. check-in at Heathrow, as we made our way to Detmold (via Hannover) in Germany. Despite my calm and exacting instructions from the navigation seat, Simon Cox’s driving of the battle bus filled the group with trepidation – he requires constant reminding to drive on the right side […]

Trakai Fanfare Week, Lithuania (by Huw Morgan)

Monday began with that rarest of Septura touring experiences: a lie-in! Having been awake for approximately 22 hours the previous day, it was a welcome opportunity for us to recharge the batteries, enjoy a hearty buffet breakfast, and bask in the glorious natural surroundings of our Dolomitic mountain chalet. Thereafter began the drive from Trentino […]

Sounds of the Dolomites Festival, Italy (by Simon Cox)

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 […]

Young Arts Festival, Poland (by Matthew Gee)

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. […]

Japan Day 6 (by Dan West)

The final concert day of a Septura tour (or ‘SepTOURa’ – a cringe-inducing term which I unsuccessfully tried to moniker earlier this week) is always bittersweet. It’s fun performing and socialising with great friends in a new and exciting country, but by the final day I find the desire to get home and reunite with […]

Japan Day 5 (by Huw Morgan)

Monday morning began rather unconventionally, with a brief tremor measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale acting as my 8am wake-up call! Fortunately we were some 100km southwest of the epicentre (near Mito, where we had performed the previous day…), so there were no pictures falling off the walls or tables sliding around the room, although […]

Japan Day 4 (by Sasha Koushk-Jalali)

With two concerts behind us, Sunday marked the middle of the tour, and brought with it the group’s concert in Mito, a city near Japan’s south east coast. We had been informed that over a thousand tickets had sold for our concert in Mito, which mustered an additional hubbub of an anticipation within the group […]

Japan Day 3 (by Peter Moore)

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 […]

Japan Day 2 (by Alan Thomas)

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, […]

Japan Day 1 (by Simon Cox)

The tour almost finished before it began. We’d met in central London to rehearse before heading to Heathrow Airport, and the easiest way to get there afterwards seemed to be some split-fare Ubers (or ‘splubers’ in common parlance). For some reason the trumpets’ driver didn’t seem to think it was a problem to start driving […]

Auckland (by Simon Cox)

[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 […]

Wellington Day 2 (by Huw Morgan)

It has become somewhat of a tradition in Septura to use mealtimes together as an opportunity to discuss our next eating arrangements! Monday evening at The Bresolin was no exception, as we made plans to meet Dave Bremner the following morning for brunch at Goldmine, a true Wellington institution. The hearty breakfast certainly didn’t disappoint […]

Wellington Day 1 (by Alan Thomas)

Bouyant from another successful show in a rather wet Dunedin, we boarded our airport shuttle and our perky resident driver ‘Starsky’ whisked us off to the airport. On arrival in Wellington we enjoyed a short walk along the stunning Wellington Harbour, described by some as ‘mini Melbourne’. We grabbed a quick bite to eat, and […]

Dunedin (by Matt Knight)

A leisurely 10 am start in Christchurch continued the theme of this being the most relaxed Septura tour in history. To Matt Gee’s chagrin, a couple of us even committed the cardinal sin of being slightly late for the bus – it seems that Kiwi baristas are quite laid back, and the making of the […]

Christchurch (by Dan West)

It’s hard to fathom that over a week has passed since we took off from Heathrow. On Friday morning we departed Nelson, NZ with heavy hearts after a very successful residency at the NCMA. We met in the hotel foyer at a very civilised 8:30am before piling into the airport transfer which was kindly arranged […]

Nelson residency Day 4 (by Simon Cox)

On our final day in Nelson we were up bright and early for another rehearsal, this time for our upcoming recording of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. It says a lot about how busy Septura’s members are in their orchestral ‘day jobs’ that the only time we could get everyone together to do this was on the other […]

Nelson Residency Day 3 (by Matt Gee)

The morning after our New Zealand debut was gloriously sunny – any fuzzyness from a rather short night’s sleep quickly cleared; Pete was even heard whistling in the shower such was his happy outlook. Group warm-ups kicked the day off at 8am – Matt and Dan gave away their playing secrets, and reduced everyone to […]

Nelson residency Day 2 (by Huw Morgan)

After the festivities of the previous evening, the second day of our residency began with Matt Gee bravely volunteering to lead the 8am group warm-up class. Rather unsurprisingly for such an early morning session, the attendance of Septura’s other members – which had been enthusiastically mooted some twelve hours earlier – failed to materialise, as […]

Nelson residency Day 1 (by Alan Thomas)

Today our long awaited residency in Nelson begins. Over the next four days  we’ll give a performance of our Pilfered Piano programme, coach various young chamber groups, conduct a concert of Gabrieli in the Cathedral and combine together with the students in the final concert in a big Strauss finale. After doing our individual daily […]

NZ Day 1 (by Matt Knight)

We celebrated Easter Sunday with the first rehearsal of our New Zealand tour, at the Centre of Musical Arts in Nelson. To be honest it was a bit of relief to feel slightly human again, and for our lips to have returned to a more normally responsive state. Brass instruments are fairly unique in that […]

Una navidad española (by Matthew Gee)

The story begins at London Heathrow’s Terminal 3, with a typical touring check-in of 6:20am. Given previous touring mishaps, the simple fact that we still had flights booked made it one of our more successful starts to a tour. Not really knowing how cold Spain would be in December, most people came wrapped up for […]

Altmark Festival, Germany (by Sasha Koushk-Jalali)

The Altmark Festival was Septura’s first German destination of 2018, and we met early on Saturday morning to polish up our Borrowed Baroque programme. We have performed this a number of times in the UK recently, and merely had to bring James Fountain up to speed on our newest piece, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite. After working our way […]

America Day 11 (by Simon Cox)

The last day of our tour began with the welcome confirmation that we would perform in Chicago after all – the snowy weather had subsided, and our scheduled masterclass at Northeastern Illinois University would now be a concert instead. The morning afforded us a rare chance to catch up on some sleep, which was especially […]

America: Day 10 (by Matthew Knight)

Bagels on the bus at 6 am and we were on the way to our final destination with mixed emotions. 10 inches of snow overnight had meant that our much-anticipated Chicago concert had been cancelled, which was a bitter disappointment (Chicago is a bit of a brass-players’ Mecca). On the other hand, after 9 concerts […]

America: Day 9 (by Huw Morgan)

8am, Fayetteville: after a few post-breakfast gulps of fresh Arkansas air and with the battle bus loaded, we headed onto the interstate for the last major road trip of the tour – 7 hours to Belton, Texas. Driving conditions were pretty much perfect, with clear blue skies and open carriageways allowing us to quickly rack […]

America: Day 8 (by Dan West)

Never leave anyone behind. It’s the mantra of any decent touring outfit and when a group is forced to abandon this principle it does so with great reluctance. Today we were forced to ‘leave a man behind’ on two separate occasions. When six of us met in the lobby of our charming Detroit airport hotel […]

America: Day 7 (by Matthew Gee)

Granville, Ohio – a New England-style community, located along the western edge of the Appalachian Plateau, population 3,500. Also the home of Denison University and our sixth concert. We were housed in the impressive Granville Inn, built in 1924, and offering a touch of luxury for our one and only free morning of the tour. […]

America: Day 6 (by Alan Thomas)

We’ve now reached the mid point of the tour, we’re all still in great shape and team morale is higher than ever. All downhill from here! You may have noticed our rather arduous travel schedule, not to mention 10 shows in 10 days. However, sharing the driving and navigating, and plenty of laughs with a […]

America: Day 5 (by Matthew Knight)

  Almost half way through our tour, and things had been going a little too smoothly. Something had to give, and it turned out that something was our windscreen. Barely 5 minutes into our journey it cracked into a broad grin, stretching almost its entire width. With no replacement available within 500 miles, we had […]

America: Day 4 (by Simon Cox)

These days it’s easy to keep in touch with everyone back home whilst on tour thanks to technology, so a few calls were made once we embarked on the day’s drive (only 6.5 hours this time) to check in with family…perhaps just as importantly, it allowed us to keep track of a thumping victory for […]

America: Day 3 (by Huw Morgan)

Day 3 took us from the outskirts of Fort Worth, Texas, to the college town of Manhattan, Kansas, home of K-State University and affectionately nicknamed ‘The Little Apple’. The 494 mile drive seemed at times almost interminable, the sun-scorched prairies stretching as far as the eye could see, occasionally punctured by a roadside service station. […]

America: Day 2 (by Dan West)

Day 2 and we’ve already racked up some serious miles in the Septura battle bus. So far we’ve resisted the urge to stencil the group’s logo onto the side of the vehicle, and the only thing we’ve knocked over has been a very unfortunate traffic cone on the Interstate. We woke up this morning in […]

America: Day 1 (by Matthew Gee)

Our debut USA tour opened at Oklahoma State University (OSU), home of the Cowboys (Go Pokes!). The group met up in Dallas Fort Worth Airport, with Matt Knight and I having flown down from San Francisco on the back of a 3-week tour with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. We squeezed onto a tiny plane bound […]

Septura in the USA

We’re looking forward to our first US tour in just a few weeks’ time. All of the info about where we’re going can be found on this page – it’s going to be quite a busy couple of weeks, with 10 concerts in 10 days in 8 different states. We’re playing a brand new programme […]