A Celebration of Brass - An Online Event

A Celebration of Brass - An Online Event on Sunday 27th March, 7pm

I am an OCA BA (Hons) Music student currently working on the final module of my degree, Sustaining Your Practice.

This module focuses on preparing students for a future career in music, aimed at building networks, gaining confidence and understanding the more commercial side of the musical work. The end goal for the module is to showcase your work to a wider audience and to help forge links that may help get your career started.

At first, just the thought of this module was hugely daunting. As a fairly reserved person who does not like to be the centre of attention, I had no idea how I was going to find the confidence to ‘put myself out there’. I immediately shied away from the idea of putting on a live concert and chose to explore a more online-based event.

After a lot of planning, as well as some trial and error, I settled on the proposal of an online, streamed recording of three of my brass arrangements, each utilising a different recording techniques. The motivation behind this project was to bring together the brass playing community in Jersey, where I live, as well as overseas, promoting my own practice as a musician in the process.

The arrangements that I have recorded include:

Handel’s Overture from Atalanta, arranged for brass quintet

This is going to be a video recording, using local musicians here in Jersey. I am fortunate to have worked with some fantastic musicians to record this.

An arrangement of a medley of extracts from Mahler’s symphonies for full brass band

This is my largest arrangement, lasting 11 minutes and scored for full brass band. It was a challenge to arrange and has been a challenge to record! I had hoped that my own brass band would be able to record this live for me, however, this has not been possible. I have therefore used a ‘virtual ensemble’ recording technique, where each individual part is recorded by a musician at home. I have then pieces these all together.

Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel Overture, arranged for brass dectet

For this recording I have also formed a ‘virtual ensemble’. After a lot of promotion, I am fortunate enough to have had musicians from the UK (including OCA students), Germany and the USA record parts for me. One of these musicians even asked for permission to use this arrangement at their wedding later this year, which is very exciting!

The end result of this project will be a live-streamed video premiering on Sunday 27th March at 7pm (GMT). The event will be completely free to watch and if you would like to watch, please visit my website: www.celebrationofbrass.com where you can RSVP.

What started out as a daunting process, has turned into an exciting one where I gradually get to hear my arrangements come to life. Not only have I had the opportunity to meet and work with many new musicians, I have also had the opportunity to also play some of my arrangements myself.