Onyx Brass on Sarah's Live Horn Hangouts

Brass, Brum & Besties - Onyx Brass on Sarah´s live Horn Hangouts live from Birmingham. One of the greatest British brass quintets of today, Onyx Brass, were Sarah´s guests on this Horn Hangout live from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. We talked about the secrets of a great brass quintet and also held a mini masterclass with Eastside Brass, a student quintet from Birmingham. January 20th, 2020

Transcript

Auto-generated from the live stream, expect the occasional robot mishearing.

We’re on we’re live hi everybody out there in Hoorn hangout land welcome back to the horn hangouts our first horn hangout of 2020 and we are in Birmingham at the Birmingham Conservatoire where I’m lucky enough to be the International chair of brass although today I’m the International sofa of brass large groan thank you we are celebrating breaking the very first great

Birmingham brass fest which has been organized by the head of brass here Amos Miller isn’t Amos great and dear Amos is also a member of the Onyx brass quintet who have really have been described as the classiest brass ensemble in Great Britain today we are going to see how true that is and they are going to play us in with a great piece by

Steven Dobson am i right Simon Dobson I’m sorry Simon he’s here somewhere - Simon are you here well hi Simon apologies I will never call you you can call me Sally for the rest of my life a great piece they’re gonna play us in take it away boys and see you in a few minutes for the rest of the

Hangout [Music] [Applause] [Music] fantastic thank you that’s the that’s a stressy part now now comes the easy part or is it the other way round welcome Andy you were gonna go you couldn’t go there oh there’s a big someone run away [Music] we are really lucky that our great technical team here at the berm you Conservatoire are live-streaming this and handsome

Tim is awake in Melbourne Thank You handsome Tim for running the stream by a five stream thank you and as always I have the live audience here on my wonderful tablet we’re not supposed to say iPad are we other brands are available and people are watching from Steven from Portland in Maine my mum watching from Asia and sorry handsome

Tim in Melbourne of course New York Chris in New York Tom Redmond is watching ray from Dublin hello Tom masses of people we want to know who is watching and where you are watching from because here in the audience we have all the participants of the great brass Birmingham process Amos welcome very much has been like organizing all this lot

I’ve got a few more gray hairs now than I did when I started it’s been quite there for long but it’s been amazing because so many incredibly talented people have been here and they’ve all been so generous with their time at least spiring everybody I like my international sofa Dave how long has this quintet been together forever it feels like forever sometimes this is our 27th year it’s a bit worrying because we were in

Youth Orchestra in the National Youth Orchestra together so we’re not going to count but we must have started when we were maybe one you looked it anyway [Laughter] alright alright yes well and moving swiftly along tell us more how did you get together well it’s a bit cheesy I suppose but the name onyx is an anagram of

X my oh and you were just talking about the nyo and so yeah the five members of the group now are slightly different to the five members who started the group but back then we were former members of the nyo now we happen to be former members of the EU y ou but we can’t really change our name to

Luke’s what would you know but that’s actually I didn’t realize that that is not on your website if anyone can post their the link to your website then you’ll see even more information than actually probably not a lot more information I spent a long time reading about you guys and listening to - or you’ve got great videos on there and

Amos can talk can - you know you play in the LSO London Symphony Orchestra and the last time we saw each other do you remember coffee time I do I was a wonderful time and all of a sudden I heard this neighbors theme and you were also there to support your friend and colleague Phil communist who had to be

I don’t know if he’s watching Phil are you watching you said you were gonna write in and get your revenge on your dear friend here he actually agreed to do a hangout which everyone told me he wouldn’t but he did I mean I guess he did a really good job I thought you had a bit of problems you’re out in the bush weren’t you yeah

I was at my mother-in-law’s on the border of New South Wales and Queensland no phone reception you know it was a really good video with his cap on the way yeah you have to watch the film about fish now he’s going through a cool glasses phase yeah for the next one well thank you for being here today it would have been a shame if you weren’t because it wouldn’t have been a quintet and it was so great to see you again we’re not gonna say how many years it’s been a couple a couple and we lost to each other in playing for on someone more

Down yeah and where are you now um I some split my time but mainly split your time I divide my time I can divide one eye from English National Opera I’m in the orchestra there and I do some teaching with my good friends Dave is my boss at Eton that’s right yeah you have a you have a boss or

Eton voice I do is that a good thing or a bad thing so okay I mean people love Downton Abbey and all that these days cool voice actually because we’ve got two bosses and two workers in this group sitting on that side I was told these two can talk the most and this camera was getting them all on so so yeah we thought we’d put the talk rizona

Beauty you were doing really well up till now my gosh so you you teach it Eaton’s yeah yeah I mean there’s there’s two voltages there and basically time is all the time so I couldn’t actually fit in the whole lot of horn students a good crowd yeah life as a musician in this country yeah that was something

I wanted to touch on every night Alan how on earth do you manage cuz you’re teaching here too yep yeah I assist a moss yeah so she’s the associate head of breath apparently that sounds very official there’s no fun these are basically like floating and float out and floating and he doesn’t work he does all the admin yeah all the hard stuff yeah

I think that files getting pretty big these places good then wants out too but yeah I do that I’m in one of the principal trumpets in the CVS oh so I spend a lot of time on my Brompton between the two buildings city of Birmingham York astre that’s it watching someone watching from Ian port house is watching from

Dabo well he knows what I’m here from Wales F horn Patrick is watching oh my goodness all these people Stephen is watching incredible Toronto wow that’s really amazing so Phoebe are so City bromine Symphony you’ve just gone back there yes yeah that was my first job out of college I did nine years and ten months I just missed my long service award and then

I joined the BBC Symphony Orchestra for five years and then when a mosque got the job here and a few fans are being associate head of brass hang on a minute I wonder if my job still going at CBS oh and it had been sort of vacant for five years for a couple of phone calls later yah yeah and

I’m back here back in the CBS oh and back in assisting a moth and doing onyx and lots of other things do you manage to find time to be in the quintet for 25 years with the same people if you’re all so busy well I I mean the groups were going for a long time I’m the newbie that wasn’t on the website

I think one of my first official gigs was the 20 years anniversary or something so well yeah I’ve been sort of catching up ever since really and I think just about now I’m getting and getting the hang of the repertoire but most of the time it’s playing things that they know backwards and I’m going out Cisco play that again but you don’t know all your things backwards do you because one thing

I really admire about your quintet is the commissions you’ve played how many reckon it we premiered over 200 pieces now for brass quintet that is amazing it really is what a gift it’s been absolutely for since we started to try and that we really believe in the format has it as a worthy format for channel music we think it works really well and

I’ve seen if you want to have there was pioneering work done by the New York City brass quintet and obviously the amazing Philip Jones brass quintet who Philip was a real patron of ours when we started and first of the Jones was act the day yes he was here yesterday was so lovely to see not like 90-something in has given up downhill skiing and converted to the cross country amazing so we just kinda thing you have to create a repertoire so that hopefully in you know in 100 years time this you mean

Armageddon hasn’t happened in the meantime then there will still be brass quintet and they can look back at this time as being informative time for a repertoire you know she feels very important and sometimes we try and contextualize in your music because I think new music is something that brings with it a fear for some audience is it kind of can be you know holy me of contemporary so we try and there’s been almost no programs we’ve played ever haven’t had at least one but when we see new pieces

I mean like last night there was some new brass there was a new brass pan piece but it was very tonal we’re not talking about squeaky gate music or are we we’ve done a few things that sound like a fire in a pet shop I think I think we I think even music that can be very atonal a very spiky and on first hearing and first looking for when we first see the music can be am

I going to how am I going to make a head of Taylor this I think really feel very strongly that if you introduce pieces properly and help audience get a handle on what they’re looking out for what special techniques we use what kind of mutes will kind of flutter tell you whatever then people even if even if it’s not necessarily gonna be on their spot if

I play this later it’ll be at least something it’s a profitable listening experience for them rather than just a whitewash of sort of elitist kind of went we’re cleverer than new because we play all this stuff and if you don’t like it then you’re stupid kind of thing which I think can sometimes be the case with classical music we’re not careful so that’s kind of been our ethos so

Dave what makes a good commission I mean obviously what you just played just now thank you but that’s also very tonal modern absolutely well I mean tonight we’re going to play two new pieces one by Simon one by Tim Jackson and they’re both I think I mean I just you know hope we both play them as well as they should be played but they’re both fabulous pieces in their own way and probably your audience certainly here and hopefully some people online would have recognized that

Simon was using a very familiar brass quintet theme for that last movement of his piece and and I think you know it’s a it’s a clever thing to do and I think composers have to be clever like that as I’m also saying there’s not quite so much squeaky gate stuff going on Wiki gate I wonder if we have to explain that to our viewers that are watching in non-english speaking can squeaky gate means the really modern music that just sounds like like a door being opened that’s a very

British way of describing was it the BBC symphony when Boulos was there who coined that phrase is that right I know I would imagine I could imagine about I think that’s where it came you know there’s nothing wrong with that kind of music because a more said it’s got as long as you contextualize it but I think composers nowadays like tissa to take the heavy lifting out of out of listening as much as they can so

Simon’s very cleverly using a Malcolm Arnold theme in that last movement he calls it a borrowed theme in the subtitle to the movement and Tim Jackson’s piece later very strange rehearsing it because Tim’s been a great friend of the group’s since the beginning Tim it’s principal thorn in the in the Royal Liverpool and and we had a master class with him today and he scared me he knows so much he was explaining about overtones and the overtones that are in the notes that you can’t hear and the and what note of the chord it’s if his piece is anything like that yeah it’s a wonderful

Period draw lots and three quintets are playing at once we’re playing with with really fine young quintet and I called kana brush and another fine young quintet one of our student groups here curtain brush tonight so it’s a world premiere with three quintet events Wow speaking of a good thing you are going to be coaching in a few minutes when we when we’ve got to know each other when the online audience have gotten to know you and if anybody has any any questions online then please please write in and let us know like let us know where you’re watching from and let us know what

You’re drinking because it varies you know and the people are getting up in New York or drinking completely different things and the people going to bed in Australia water yeah and also let us know if you have any questions because this brass quintet has been together for so long and I’m really fascinated to find out you know the secrets what what what makes a good we all know when we when when we’re listening to something that’s good but why is that why is that so the the

Commission’s a very important part the Commission’s are and I mean if you look at all the you know a must mentioned the New York City brass quintet in the Philippines and you’ve got the American brass quintet and you know in this country groups like fine arts brass have also spent a lot of time commissioning and I think commissioning sort of gives you longevity because not only do you have your name written on the top of the piece of paper you know commissioned by and for onyx brass or whoever but

I think it sort of if people don’t appreciate or like the music it sort of gets on there on the kind of contemporary music map in it in a kind of mini way and therefore you become more of a kind of known entity you just wait after the horn hangouts you’re going to be the biggest known entity by the way

Margaret is watching it it’s her birthday Oakley R no it’s not Margaret its Claire sorry Claire says it’s your birthday Margaret said there’s nothing like a horn hang out on your birthday so happy birthday and they’re from Hungary disaster what about female musicians in brass formations are there any girl quintets I know Tina’s we’ve got we’ve got a

Steven one here relaxed brass all-female second-year quintet doing great things great and there’s a there’s there’s certainly too three American groups on everything this Sarah Sarah brass that’s diletto brass I think one of them’s cool yeah playing the stereotype Wow you know mark get my good marketing we have a whole quartet called genghis barbie that all have different colors whatever good

I was brought up in when I was studying the horn I did everything I could to take the attention away from the fact I was a girl brass player because I thought it was a disadvantage but now you know celebrate it why not now what do you think of all these commissions do you sometimes get parts from new pieces and think honestly

I mean I think most of the Commission’s that we’ve done I haven’t heard that sometimes we do get sent music that we haven’t asked that’s a that’s a different kettle of fish sometimes you get some interesting things but no of the pieces that we’ve had commissioned that I mean 10 10 is a great example these commissions we’ve commissioned what five or six pieces from him over the years and he is able to write music that’s challenging in many ways but it’s so idiomatic comes through it’s difficult but you can never say this is unplayable this is frustrating you know there are challenges that you need

To overcome but not not in any way is it unplayable I think we’ve been quite lucky on that yeah I think we have but I also think you know to add to what and I’ll saying I think it’s really helpful if the composer has an open mind when they send you the music and we’ve had a couple of composers come to rehearsal and very often they’ll say oh that doesn’t quite sound how is that a bit hard on the instrument and you say yeah and

I said oh for goodness sake let’s change it and do this and it’ll work much better if it and so that really helps and I can only really remember two pieces in the 27 years where we’re both composers in both cases were absolutely stuck on exactly what they sent us is exactly what should be played and you know are you still playing those pieces today let that be a lesson to you all out there if you want to ask me some nice pieces so what about getting together how did that happen yeah you’ve been here for the long enough we were we were at

Eton College Friday and that was my very first rehearsal to Eton College in the very building that we did did this concert and it’s a bit like sort of quite a nice office yeah our first ever gig was in Eton College and we all got the giggles and I discovered that Dave Pyatt could he’s the only prosper

I know who can laugh through his nose while he’s playing the rest of us completely cool hmm you don’t want to show us how that’s done but to come back to I mean you asked an ad about the kind of origins of the group so am I talking too much Tommy no no no but you they told me you were going to talk the most okay that’s fine right soon

I’ll get some looks coming in for you which is good but actually ended up being a real blessing no offense to Dave Pyatt but when Andy joined the group because onyx when we sort of conceived of Onyx we kind of conceived of a sound I hope that doesn’t sound too pretentious pens on what the sound is well yeah but when

Andy replaced Dave the kind of the cohesive lower brass sound in onyx became something that it never quite was Dave obviously the most amazing horn player but we’ve seen to the blend between the three of us for the trumpets to put that kind of sparkle on the top seems to have always worked much better with Anne you know so he’s really

I kind of found a member Dave doesn’t mind if we call and he found in them oh there’s um there’s the student good questions come in T Cecilia from Norway who loves hangouts thank you any suggestions from not too difficult great quintet pieces the battle suite I must probably got more yes but not too difficult the thing is

I mean we my dear colleague Stefan door is that is having a fantastic time getting pieces commissioned for him mazing horn concertos Wolfgang dream and Abra Hanson promise none of us normal mortals can play them and this might be a danger with with quintet pieces there’s a lovely piece we played which we don’t publish but is published by

John White and we did it and our Purcell room debut in 94 I think it’s called doggerel machine and that’s back with with it it takes some getting you know you have to play it very well together and with beautiful ensemble to make it effective but technically speaking it’s very straight for those are the sort of people’s we like it’s probably a machine

John Waite if anyone can find there’s a recording of it and Evan Broadwell that does help promotion that’s a recording or doing it they do have recording they have CDs and they also you also publish your own music is that right yeah yeah how does that work a cottage industry my loft Amos that’s such a lot of work lucky tell me about it

I which one of the quintets are your favorite ask a walled-in world isn’t there is not the guy who wrote a quintet hiring for yeah I mean I obviously brass quintet is much harder work for the horn generally people here in the first trumpet or the trombone and second trumpet and horns go what gent general brass quintet

I mean I think that the legendary one has to be the Arnold really I think I was living contact with Simon dobson about this commission and I thought well be great if we had another epic quintet that’s programmable and he’s easy to listen to but also sort of breaking boundaries another you know I just said well the reason it’s got this little quotes of the

Arnold in was because it’s it’s just such an epic work and although it’s hard work I still think you can play that in any any sort of settings goes down well I mean we’ve played a lot of Arnold recently actually because a couple of years ago we recorded a whole load of fanfares with John Wilson conducting thing which was probably a big process we extended onyx out to

I think at the beginning we did some fanfares with eighteen or nineteen with percussion as well and on the final day of recordings it was just me and Niall every every vampire on Sat Topsy for the last two days that was just sitting there going oh yeah speaking of the pub there’s a very good question just come in from

F horn Patrick who’s in Toronto how important is the relationship with each other in a quintet do you find if you were all bonding really well the music is more lively and what would you suggest a new quintet does to bond that’s actually a really good question you asked how we keep going for 27 years and as you say that you know between between the five of us there’s sort of seven different occasions three or four different big teaching jobs you know

Ella so obviously famously unbelievably busy schedule it’s very hard and the whatsapp threads can get somewhat somewhat touchy sometimes but the fundamental fact is that every time we meet up we’re really chuffed to see each other your best pals basically and you’re making music with your best pals and it takes because the music’s hard obviously but for me

I find myself getting much less nervous for quintet playing than I do from orchestral playing and part of that is because you’re playing all the time so you’ve got less time less head time and you might we said three minutes of Brahms one getting curly about Karami whatever but it’s also it’s also partly that somehow I feel like

I’m not gonna get sacked from this group if you have all the music in your hostage that you’re with your pal so they’ve got your back either way and the lovely thing about being having been together for so long and getting to know everyone so well is not just this juggling of orchestras but we’ve all been through various traumas and life cycles and children and you know and we’ve all kind of lived through and

I suppose on any given day but no the point is that it’s sort of a mini mini support network and everyone everyone there’s always kind of you either just kind of coasting or individually there might be something going on and and it’s there’s always got to be some give within the kind of social framework of a group for it to continue to function normally and without angst you know

I don’t think that’s playing point of view this is we’re not just social point from a playing point to you as you know every professional boss players you know if you’re doing high-profile things there will be times where your chops just feel awful or you just funny whether it’s psychological or whatever it is you might feel like you’ve got the yips or you might feel like it’s just not working where you want it to and actually having colleagues like this who you’re not the big you keeping the gig is not dependent on how good you play so you can and they all know you really

Well they know you’re playing backwards so they you can get some really lovely feedback from your your pals expressed in a caring way where you know I think you may be doing that with your tongue or you may be you know you’re sharp or whatever it is but you can take it from these guys this is really nice someone called mega mouthpiece says true most life cycles and children a great name for a peace sign someone quite a few questions back asked me well even

Rhonda wanted to know have you experimented with positions do you have a standard way of sitting and standing and this is a big theme because you’re about to coach one of the student ensembles here and they want we’re gonna stand but then you wanted to sit so they’re gonna sit what what do you prefer yeah I mean

I think early on and the life of the group please tried standing a little bit and I think it was the general feeling that it was doing much like hard work so we sat down very quickly but I think I think look as long as as long as you feel free an imposition to to express yourself and to serve the music then

I don’t think it matters so much there is also the question of what’s best for the audience so I prefer standing when I win our brows on brother Phil brass ensemble we stand I’m a sit-down person yourself but I do remember doing a an audition we did in Whitmore Hall and we this was at a time when we were doing our experimenting with what do we do and we sort of decided like we want to do something different we want to be noticed so seem two men will be stood in almost in a straight line in sort of facing what possessed us to do that

I know look you better get now how on earth did that go well we did go with that well but it was but it was that was the time we were thinking about how we present ourselves does it work for the group to literally function there and then does it function to the audience what about a plan because you know in my in the brilliant field brass they tell me often

I’m just there for decoration thanks guys I guess it’s a compliment but but it’s important with one horn it’s literally virtually impossible that anyone’s going to hear you and pointing that way so we thought about maybe standing that side but then you need to trumpet there to leave and you two are opposite II know how did the a you were opposite each other yeah yeah

I mean we have experimented with certain things I think often the venues we play in suits are sitting down it’s often playing lots of music clubs and things like that enough often up on high stages so I think standing isn’t so important but we have experimented in a few a few pieces of Andy swapping with me where we do a nice piece in one of our jazz programs features the whole and heavily so which walkover so

Andy can really project but I think that it’s probably a widely known that the horn can be the problem instrument in some ways in the nicest way possible we have often found sort of certain bits of balls and things to shove behind their deeds yeah but the other thing that can sometimes change but you know watching other groups is the - trumpets often sit together don’t they and that’s not really something we’ve ever done and maybe people should tell us if we should try it because

I mean the antiphonal thing seems to work really well but of course I’m sitting very near them and so Amos and Andy and very often you come across brass contests whether two trumpets together so I think it depends on the piece I see maybe this is something we should think about but depends on the repertoire so sometimes it definitely makes sense for the trumpets to be facing each other other times it’s quite nice to be next to each other and then of would be the trombone on the end or it’s

I think we could maybe mix it up a bit more maybe with all the I mean a lot of new repertoire that we’ve done I mean we get so used to knowing the sight lines and I came what’s got I mean often a lot of the things that we’re doing that we’re not so sure off you know with

Amos and I are often sort of eyeballing each other all the way through so I think we get we get used to where people are and that was where we feel my most comfortable well we can perform the best just to explain what Alan was talking about for the sort of brass quintet nerds out there I hope there are lots of yeah there are lots of

Brassard no credito everyone we’re all nerds watching it’s lovely we were allowed to be nerves there people watching live on Facebook as well this is going live on Facebook so write in and tell us where you’re watching from Alan describing him and Amos sort of clucking each other across the quintet we found over the years that the easiest way for all five of us to be kind of locked in is that all my peripheral vision is the chiba player is the worst because

I’ve got a massive bell in the way often being able to see Alan so the easiest kind of link is to have Alan and Amos sort of giving us down beats and things with the slide of the trombone and the bell of the trumpet Niall tends to be out of my peripheral vision and so that’s what Alan that’s what

Alan was referring to with the head of the we just gets us to the next question from Heidi Heidi Ora she says she has a diplomacy question do you all give input on choosing pieces making decisions taking the lead or does one person tend to take the lead or how topical I mean Dave is the engine of the group and always has been he’s the most efficient provision this provision so we occasionally take

Andy looks off for the music in terms of current repertoire librarian of all sort of stuff I you know I’ve organised we did a jazz see any new jazz commissions a couple of years ago that was my baby so I organized all of that but but Dave is the you know we have an agent and stuff but

Dave does all the day-to-day running and is the one who leads on everything in which he’s heartily sick of so you would recommend that a new brass quintet or nothing if you can delegate I mean I think there has to be some generally speaking in a in a quintet there has to be something slack cut to the trumpets just because they’ve got more notes to play than everybody else and if

I know and I think I brought me not to put too fine a point on it I think they mentioned the horn trombone tube and we hopefully make a lovely noise but a quintet little dies by his trumpets because they get most of the tubes and they get all the flashy stuff another bridge stuff and we’re ridiculously blessed having these two geniuses and the group and

I think so the fact that they both maybe do slightly less sometimes quintet wise sorry for the interference but I think there’s a certain you know acknowledgment that we probably take to do a few more things but but we’re open to the trumpets doing more admin if they want group should set up if you’ve got a new group everybody’s equally keen and got time you should they assign roles you know different people lives if somebody’s a very tidy fastidious person looking after music it’s a really good thing yes

I say use the personality yeah because I mean I’m not particularly outgoing personality so I beg to differ thank you but no Dave is greater you know as everyone seeing he’s great at talking and also communicating to people so you know getting work you know a great way of actually you know go people invite you so nice to each other yeah necessarily publish on what’s that phrase though to come back to your question about programming you look

I think the question was about programming and so so it tends to the suggestion actually a most has been suggesting some program ideas recently as well so but what we do have in the group is the one big rule is the power of veto so we send out the program and we say guys have a look at this

I’m going to send it in 48 hours unless anyone invokes the power of veto and then anyone in the group can say well we’re not playing that bloody piece again because that was a nightmare last time can we find something else and if they don’t know within 40 hours it’s their tough one other thing that is that’s all about looking after the trumpet is one thing that as we know these two can talk really well and on some of our bigger more sort of roasted up programs sometimes we neither and

I will give a look to these and they often talk for another five minutes or so just while we’re getting some blood flood back in the chops sort of see them they’re like okay just keep going yeah well there’s one more question and then I’d like to maybe get the bra so you can sort of start getting your instruments warm maybe we do a little bit of coaching there

Anika’s asked do any of the people in the quintet also play instruments other than brass and I also wanted to ask what do you do when you’re not playing your instruments so I did I dabbled on percussion a bit before I went to music college oh I wasn’t good enough to get my local youth orchestra so I played play percussion instead so

I did my grade a percussion before I came to fill my time well I think I’ve got three three children’s that takes out quite a lot of time but in cbs-owned running challenge going on you’re running miles yeah yeah John hold on line the principal jump is gone ahead of me now I’ll being busy with this brass press the last few days and he’s been running all morning and it’s all on

Strava for everyone to see I think is I think they’re posting it so everyone know what’s going on Andy what about you yeah I’ve got two children which lots of ferrying around my my youngest is a she’s she’s become quite good at fencing she’s just Sabre fencing and I was at a competition yesterday and come to competitions next weekend so that takes up quite a time much image in my oldest

I’m done yeah I mean it’s quite frightening I know nothing about fencing apart from what I’ve learnt standing at the side of a fencing piece but imaging my you know eldest she but she plays lots of instruments she plays the violin she plays the tenor sax the alto sax she sings so but you don’t I don’t you just play the horn that’s enough well

I to earn money yes I just play the horn I sort of could play the piano if pushed and I sometimes might accompany both of my daughters just first sort of a bit of fun and please time about the campaign for Real Ale yes one on one of my favorites it’s one of my favorite campaigns I just point out that there’s no coincidence we’ve got a little hash tag for this great

Birmingham brass fest which is g-g-gee BBF which happens to be the same hashtag is the great british beer festival and that’s not entirely unfair and actually Andy is usually the one who finds us the good pub near our venue is librarian and pub finder it’s just it’s a movement which grew up but the there was a time in in

Britain when in the making of real ale was a very low ed and there were very very few breweries that did it and this group got together and of basically over in this country I think probably the world is you know because you go to most places in the world now and they won’t just serve you a bog-standard glass of beer it will be some sort of art designer that still make jokes about

British war your secrets before we went to Belfast years ago and sorry and we had nice parents were amazing hosts and we have to create Mexican food around but we were a little bit worse for wear and now as dad came out with a little see 90% tape and say I’d wanna hear nyle singing treble you know sing you know for the wings and we like put it on it was a live radio 3 broadcasters we all we all just suddenly shut up and it was so beautiful amazing scene it was very embarrassing karaoke is

I believe I believe I can fly it needs to be foreseen to believe this we should we should have organized that for today I wish I’d known oh my good god maybe maybe some of your section Genoa the great thing is that most of the stuff sort of predated social media so I’m going to do it until you sing and what else do you do when you’re not well

I have a little one year old daughter who’s checking up isn’t that the best way to much better watching on the surface also very good Impressionists actually because of some of our gigs we stay off and with hosts or with a B&B or something like that and it’s usually just will pile into the car the nilesat there quietly drew in breakfast and then will suddenly do the absolute perfect impression of our hosts in whatever accent it it happens to me

Dave tell me well I mean children and trolling you say no no drama go together definitely my wife is a psychotherapist so she would not help she takes the lead on the traumatic children the headset her she she hates social media so she won’t be listening to this I can say my oh that’s a shame not most confidence which is why

I feel safe saying no I don’t have any other musical intro I’m and I sometimes think I’m a frustrated musical actor I’d like to be Tony from West Side Story yeah that’ll be nice but I think that’s probably I think the balding gray head means I’ve probably missed my opportunity now I’ve turned a bit to the dark side recently

I do some conducting hockey which I enjoy in fact I’ve been let loose on the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire wind band in recently passed with she was very kind and I really enjoyed it was good and I’ve just in the last couple of years I’ve started taking humanistic funeral ceremonies I heard that I was a bit I didn’t know what

I should actually ask I’ve never come across a tuba player who takes humanists funeral so it just really it was really to have a chance to do something sorry it’s not funny at all it’s very impressive it’s just like expose what I think I hate hate sad but you talk about the voice and I think people seem to like this kind of voice telling them you know what to do stand up and sit down and there’s something really the way that we’re trained to do these ceremonies is it was all about a tribute to the person who’s died and there’s something lovely about kind of

Weaving together all these stories that you hear from everyone and putting it into one big ceremony and delivering it and it’s it’s very satisfying and it’s not my life’s calling but it’s a lovely thing to do every few weeks or months if someone asks me I am so booking you from mine that’s really amazing instrument wise I played the fiddle until

I was 18 I played the violin I used to lead the seconds in my local youth focused until the conductor ran out of trombone players and blackmailed me to play the trombone but I keep I don’t tell many people that loss is actually a given his one of his violins that he had touched into my eldest daughter is still played so yeah and in terms of as you know

I’ve got three kids as well and juggling lots of playing and also being here so there’s lots of plate spinning so it’s not a huge amount of time for recreation but I’m with Niall on the sofa based sport I’m also very keen photographer which I find a really good way of if I’m have a tendency to be a little bit like

Eeyore and Winnie the Pooh which is a bit like if I’m not careful always you know I’m coming a little bit glass half-empty if I’m not careful I find taking photos makes me um if you’re searching for interest or beauty around you it makes me more positive as a person I don’t know I love following following your posts because you do he does amazing photos good listen

I think it’s time for some music okay so we have the Eastside brass quintet from from here a huge rose [Applause] [Music] and they have been sitting around for the last 40 minutes so if you guys want to play a few notes you’re more than welcome just to let you know if you’re watching on Facebook this is the fantastic onyx brass quintet from

Great Britain we’re in Birmingham at the great Birmingham brass fest they’re going to play for us and you guys are gonna tell them whatever you want to tell them and what are you playing guys my Michael came in is this us but is this one Britain’s classic really lovely so one one movement work but it’s very beautiful fantastic take it away boys [Music]

Bravo Eastside brass live from the camper medium Conservatoire the great Birmingham brass fest we have left to right alley Charlie Mark Barney and Sam is that right did I get that right yeah well done guys so I’m very impressed because if I was playing live on a horn hangout I wouldn’t choose anything slow but I’m very impressed at how they how they played it um so this is your master class please right

I think the first thing it’s always good to start with positives isn’t it I think there were so many good things there and probably can’t see on camera but these guys have just been sat there for for nearly an hour while we’ve been jabbering so just to come up there and play a couple of notes and play something like that with that control was was really something quickly

Michael F asked about a group warmup and that’s just something we could just quickly throw in there do you use I mean you guys had no warmup so I mean in the in the very very early days when the focus was on creating our own web repertoire through commissioning and arranging I think Amos and I mainly used to do lots of motets we used to just transcribe there’s no arranging going on at all it was just pure transcription and

I think having very simple you know the Sally army guys you Tim tunes all the time don’t they so I think having very simple Tunes or motets can often serve to be quite nice warm ups just to get the sounds blended and the intonation people blowing freely some quintet’s to I’m the very fine Spanish brass Lumet’s house their name well

I used to work there trumpet players and an orchestra in Spain years ago and they they are they used to I don’t if they still do but they used to do their technical practice together they used to sit and play for an hour and a half before they got to the repertoire they did all their scales they’re mega mouthpieces in

Auckland it’s 4:00 a.m. in the morning and he really he or she really enjoyed that performance so thank you from Auckland fantastic from Sweden Margaret in Ohio said wow that was beautiful so a lot of fans out there so we can always begin with the positive yeah yeah so I think that and what I really like there was a lot of movement as well and you could see that you all knew pretty much where all the entries are going and in this piece particular difficult because you

I think in a brass quintet is not just knowing your own part it’s knowing what everyone else is doing and who knows you know things might change in performance and you can all move and adapt and I thought the communication amongst all of you really good and also I thought the way you played your entries on your own was great as well that you came in you were confident and and everyone else thought well

I think he was supporting each other all the way through so so really really good well done yeah yeah really good I mean one thing in such a romantic piece like that I mean I just echo what Alan said it just sounded gorgeous we have a slightly kind of skewed sense of balance here so I well just because the horn was pointing right at us so

I mean maybe I that the balance was for the audience how you would have liked it to be show of hands for yes or nodding yeah great so you know the balance is such a big thing you can buy them all a beer afterwards but something you know sort of I suppose related to balance is you know the issue of dynamics you know and when you’re when you’re in a chamber group

I think people often sort of expect you to just sort of keep everything quite small and I think you had some you had some beautiful quiet stuff going on that really kind of magical and I just wonder if you know in the big 40 suppose you could just I suppose get close to that kind of sense of danger of is this gonna be too loud we have a few more of a few bars of the fortissimo bit yeah

I was thinking Charlie with the trombone quite often by default is the person who stirs in the porridge if you want to if you want to if you want to speed things up and I was just wondering if if you want to increase the dynamic it may be that you want to move the tempo forward ever so slightly says so it doesn’t feel so static and also so it’s a slightly less per smack in the face so don’t be afraid to take take them take the group by the scruff if you feel like you want to move it on and just be aware of what

He’s doing to go before one of the big bits like before B or something you know risk it being too loud and everyone will tell you if it’s to that [Music] well done and I mean just a little mean did that sound yeah see the audience are all nodding so you can you can you know take that risk and just push it up an extra level and it just is it’s pure excitement you know that just is more exciting and then you know a little trick

I’ll stop talking in a minute because it’s someone else’s turn but a little trick certainly for the trumpets can be that because you’re beautifully symmetrical the way you play and you could just lift slightly in turn so that your bow is a bit more just in the big bits in those big expansive bits and then suddenly they they’re getting this kind of war it’s just something to have up your sleeve really when you’re playing beautiful acoustic like this incredibly high ceiling imagine um and

I’ve said this to you guys before but imagine you’re playing outwards even if you’re not actually physically facing how it was imagine that your sound is you were sort of bathing them in your sound you steaming up their instruments with warm air through this but it’s sending it to the back at all I think if you think of it like that that will take any risk of it being edgy off you’ll just get projection at that point

I think it’s interesting that warm air thing isn’t it I think we think about that a lot in the group and I think as trumpet players we probably play the instruments that have the biggest risk of being brittle and yet harsh and I think when a Nile and I and the group we try and sit on the wonderful sound that you you three make and sort of think of that there’s a famous

Swedish Danish sorry trumpet teacher called Christians thin strap and he talks about thick air hmm I was kind of I like that as a concept so even when you’re playing quietly it’s it you’re making a conscious decision so that you’re not blowing less you’re just blowing slower well I think it’s one of those things is now I mean how how many of us have had in in an orchestra conductor go like that before we play well exactly you know and

I think that your initial reaction is to tense up and do this and I think we also do that in a chamber group we see piano and we or pianist moon thing when we tense up and we play with a sort of thin nasty sound potentially sounds louder and more offensive to the ear so sometimes I try and sort of think this

Espeon all you do get to do like that just think no just make it warm make it broad and don’t think too much about them and no one never comes out in a concert with a decibel meter today and and sort of you know well that wasn’t beyond oh sorry no that’s it so I think it’s sometimes good to sort of just think right just to make the nice warm sound and that’s the thing that people go wow that’s that’s what about like the beginning of the piece where we’re there it was you know who can give the confidence that well

I think that somebody obviously has to lead it but it’s it’s also about everybody’s individual inner confidence as well NMC talking about pee every time I say pee on a part I think that means positive you know in my head as a concept doesn’t mean loud but it means this is you know I’m not going to shy away from this there was just one thing that struck me because this is

Michael cam and of course rode so many fantastic film scores one one the stick side his Robin Hood Prince of Thieves and it was Kevin Costner love you probably see I see quite an enjoyable film but really film score so and this is very much in that style so I think you could think to yourself you know in terms of film music is is trying to augment a story well you sort of think about the other way so create a story for this music and you’re a character in that story and it’s not sounds a bit of an old thing to do but in terms

Of feeling confident at the beginning it’s a nice way of just getting your mind out of this is very pressurized situation P means quiet lots of people are watching you know just in terms of making yourself feel a real ownership of the performance before it even begins you guys feel like being Robin Hood so yeah maybe just think about when you’re you know doing this time one of the things that

I was really impressed with I mean you were touching on it I think earlier that it’s actually really quite complicated there’s loads of different rhythmic intricacies within it even though it’s this lovely sort of broad sort of spacious and actually putting it together is really really very complicated so instead of maybe thinking of everything locking together and everyone that triplet moving with that semiquaver triplet etc maybe try and think of more horizontal lines and where the music’s going to always coming from try and get get away from that oh you’ve already done the work to find out where everyone joins together there now maybe go

Beyond that and maybe try to think of more vertical lines and where the music’s going and hopefully that gives the confidence if someone takes on board right this line is going to there it gives hopefully it should sort of imbue a confidence throughout the group you know it’s unfortunately five paths and I have to fly back to

Berlin so we’re gonna have to end this should we end with the piece again I’d love to hear it again you know with all these tips I mean please say no you don’t mind before a brass play play this wonderful piece which is called quintet that’s it that’s all Michael came in quintet I just want to say thank you very much to the members of

Onyx brass for being here you have a really heavy night tonight you’re playing two three - well - yes tonight at the great Birmingham brass fest here at the Bourbon conservatory also marks the debut of the new brass ensemble from the local music hubs because of our youth brass which I’m conducting for my sins when we’re going to play

West Side Story to open the concert we’re then your talents I have no beginning thank you so much for setting up all this and Birmingham is really the place to breathe you know all these teachers all these ensembles fantastic students I’m very proud to be here and I hope you’ve enjoyed watching live online where have you been watching from thank you for the chat

I’ll make sure that everyone from the chat some get everyone here gets to see the chat and there’s been a question about international students amos maybe you couldn’t answer that later on thank you for joining us live on Facebook as well and live on the web site for all your questions not quite sure what the next for life horn hangout is but it’s going to be soon and

I think you will like it before we go there’s presence we’ve got I I literally got off the plane from LA and got back on the plane for Berlin so I didn’t have time to go and get t-shirts for everybody there they’re in a warehouse but I do have one extra large so I think I should try that okay so that’s an excellent thank you it’s got

Andy for your huge round of applause for all these we’ll see you next time on the horn hangouts and to play us out Eastside brass and listen to by the wonderful onyx brass see you soon [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Horn Hangouts are created by Sarah Willis of the Berlin Philharmonic. Brassbanned is a proud long-time collaborator and streaming partner.