Equivox Trio Recordings & Publications Summer School Contact Links
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| Biography Forthcoming Events Apollo Saxophone Quartet Gallery Equivox Trio Recordings & Publications Summer School Contact Links |
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robbuckland.com Life since my last note has been even more hectic than usual. I spent Christmas day travelling to China (including a seven hour transfer wait at Frankfurt airport on Xmas day itself, before the 11 hour flight to Beijing! Ho ho ho!!) to play three concerts with the Chinese National Symphony Orchestra. I was performing as part of the Orchestra's celebrated New Year Concerts, which are televised to 1.5 million people across China, playing Yoshimatsu's Cyber Bird Concerto, and some encore pieces by Piazzolla and Massanet. Under the direction of En Shao, the orchestra did a fantastic job with the programme, all of which was unfamiliar to them. Spending five days in China (in - 4°C to -11°C temperatures!) was quite an experience! I got to spend a morning sight seeing - the stunning Forbidden City, and a ride on a rickshaw around the back streets and temples near to the Forbidden City (there's a photo of me looking very cold in the gallery!!) - was breathtaking, and Beijing itself redefines the concert of busy - so many people, and such a huge "city" - almost a country in itself. On return to the UK, for the second year running, I was lucky enough to play with a fantastic band on the live TV show Soapstar Superstar - a real privilege to work with so many world class musicians, and special mention must go to the legendary Derek Watkins (playing lead trumpet - to play alongside him was such a joy and an education), Steve Sidwell (trumpet and arranger for many of the charts) and of course Phil Todd, whose alto solo on Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind" on the live final show was definitive!
Sax Assault is touring throughout the UK in March, to coincide with the release of the group's new CD "Sax of Gold" - try to make it to one of the gigs, the new set of charts is awesome, and the group is sounding better than ever! Watch out especially for the Manchester date on 19th March where we are joined by Bob Mintzer as special guest soloist! - he also features on two of the tracks on the CD. (Check out saxassault.com for info on the tour and CD). There's a couple of concerts with John Wilson and Claire Martin and the Opera North Orchestra playing the Ella Fitzgerald songbook, and John and Kim Criswell and the RLPO playing some of the songs of the great Hollywood divas to look forward to in March and April, and a performance of "Dark Rain" (Andy Scott's award winning double sax concerto) with John Harle in late March too. (Check out forthcoming events above for details). I'm off to Macau in April to play the Glazunov Concerto and Milhaud's Scaramouche with the Macau Chamber Orchestra, along with some new arrangements I'm working on of some Piazzolla Tangos for the same combination. I've also just heard that the Associated Board have included the new clarinet versions of some of my pieces on the new Clarinet Syllabus, along with the sax editions that are currently featured on Associated Board, Trinity and Guildhall syllabuses, so look out for those, and tell your clarinet playing friends about the new tunes too! I'm starting preparations for my Summer School in July (check out summer school above), I have lots of new ideas and plans for this course, and there are still some places available, open to ALL levels of experience, with workshops tailored to suit all styles, and a great social event too!!! John Sylvester (saxophone emporium - who I bought my fabulous Selmer Mark VI Soprano from many years ago) has set up a great new website saxtrader.co.uk which has everything for the modern sax player - a site where you can buy and sell your saxes, look for mouthpieces, buy and sell CDs, research courses, colleges, teachers, etc..basically everything you need in one place, a bit like a yellow pages for the sax player…I urge you to check it out, and tell your friends…it could really become a vital forum for all sax players! Finally, I want to pay tribute to Michael Brecker, who, as many of you know, passed away last month after a long fight with MDS and leukemia. There can be no doubt as to the huge impact Michael's playing had on the saxophone world, the most recorded saxophonist in history, who could arguably be seen as continuing and developing the lineage of the tenor saxophone greats from Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Stanley Turrentine, Joe Henderson, Sonny Rollins and of course John Coltrane, to yet another level. I was lucky enough to see Michael play on several occasions, including on his solo tour recently at a 3000 seater sell-out date here in Manchester. He walked onto stage with just his tenor, blew for 40 minutes, and created music of such incredible artistry, and with such a range of sounds and colours that time seemed to stand still. We are so lucky that he has left such a great legacy of recordings that will live on after his untimely passing. Stay happy and healthy, keep blowing, and keep listening. Hope to see you at a concert soon….
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