Rob Buckland - Saxophonist

Harrogate Saxophone Summer School: Just got back from another great course working with some great people - always a pleasure to meet so many sax players from around the country, coming together for a weeks saxophonic fun!

Played at the Colourscape Festival on Clapham Common in September - what an amazing structure! If you ever see this touring, you should experience it - each cell is saturated in natural light, filtered through the colour of the material of each cell - so you have totally blue rooms, red rooms, and then long corridors moving from one colour to the next, and contemporary music being played live (this time by a group of eight saxophonists) to confuse and stimulate your senses!!!

Just returned from my International Saxophone Summer School in Woldingham - such a beautiful setting, and as always a great group of saxophonists, from all corners of the country, and from all backgrounds. I was joined for the 2nd year running by Dave O'Higgins, working on all things jazz, and Fiona Asbury assisting me all week on the classical course. Check out the info and links on the Summer School tab (sub section of the Educator tab on the menu bar).

Photo: Rob and Dave soloing on the jazz night at Woldingham 09.

Just returned from a week’s tour with Opera North in Bregenz, Austria, at the world famous Bregenz opera Festival.

Have just given the British premiere of Jacob TV's "Tallahatchie Concerto" (Sat 9th May 09) with the Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra conducted by Peter Stark. What a fantastic piece, written for Arno Bornkamp, and premiered by him in Europe, Branford Marsalis in the US, and myself in the UK. I'm hoping to record this piece at some point in the not too distant future, on a CD of concerti that I have commissioned for Saxophone and Wind Orchestra, (there is a new WO reduction of this piece due next year).

Following on from a hectic 2008, this year finds me straight into the usual variety of gigs. I'm currently working hard towards a couple of Concerto dates: On 28 Feb I'm playing John William's "Escapades" - the concerto version of the soundtrack to the Dreamworks film "Catch Me If You Can" with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra at the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool.

Summer - such as it was(!) - was filled with some great gigs - including the televised BBC Prom with the BBC Concert Orchestra - summer schools, (Woldingham and Harrogate this year - both really amazing weeks, both saxophonically and socially) and listening to some inspiring concerts - I’ve just got back from hearing Guy Barker’s Amadeus Project, without doubt one of the most stunning musical events I’ve witnessed for many a year - I urge you to check it out if you can, both live and on CD.

The last four months have seen me playing with such diverse groups as SaxAssault (2 NW gigs, which featured a new set of compositions, including a new chart from me), Orchestral work with the RLPO, Northern Sinfonia (playing music by Turnage and Tim Garland), CBSO, BBC Concert Orchestra, writing a new piece for Saxophone and Horn Quartet, playing gigs in Athens, Drogheda(Ireland) and Santiagio (Spain) with the Michael Nyman Band, fronting a single reed weekend at Chetham's School in Manchester,

It occurred to me recently that my life as a musician takes me to some incredibly diverse and extraordinary places, and brings me into contact with some incredible musicians, from all parts of the musical world.

How can it possibly be August already?! I don't seem to have stopped since I wrote the last welcome note in February! February and early March saw a really enjoyable tour with my Equivox Trio (our new CD "The Time is Now" is getting great reviews - there's one on the site now - follow the link on the left, and you can order it directly from my site too).