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Chetham's Brass Quintet tours Romania |
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Chetham’s School of Music’s Brass Quintet tours Romania 11-16th July as part of this year’s UK-RO Festival 2004. The tour is supported by the Constantin Silvestri International Foundation and the British Council.
The UK-RO Festival 2004 is a festival of arts and culture in Romania and the UK celebrating the creative partnership between the two countries. Anda Anastasescu, President of the Constantin Silvestri International Foundation, internationally celebrated Romanian pianist, and friend of Chetham’s has co-ordinated the visit. The Silvestri Scholarships Competition, founded and organised by the Foundation, takes place annually, in July, in the Transylvanian city of Targu Mures in the heart of Romania, in the handsome building of the Palace of Culture where Silvestri studied music as a teenager and where the country's best-known musician George Enescu predicted a brilliant future for the boy pianist. Targu Mures has a classical music tradition and orchestra dating from the 1820s. Liszt gave a recital here and it has hosted artistes of the calibre of Pablo Casals, Jan Kubelik, Joseph Szigeti and Annie Fischer.
An orchestral course scholarship to Chetham’s in Manchester is the prize for the winner of the brass competition in Targu Mures. This will allow the winner to participate in a variety of ensemble and orchestral work culminating in showcase concerts oin venues such as the BWH, and Lichfield Festival Hall In Romania the Silvestri Foundation sponsors all costs incurred by the young competitors i.e. travel (from 41 Romanian counties), accommodation and subsistence, without which the competition could not take place.
The Competition is followed by concerts, educational activities, workshops and musical events for children, young musicians and youth orchestras to explore the musical world at the advanced levels of knowledge and artistry prevailing in Britain. Staff, students, music and drama groups from the British schools visit Targu Mures every year to participate in artistic events, community work and make friends with their Romanian counterparts.
The Chetham’s Quintet land at Bucharest on 11th July and travel to the Transylvanian town of Targu Mures. Targu Mures boasts its own Symphony Orchestra whose concert hall is contained in the Palace of Culture. The Chetham’s Quintet have been invited to raise the profile of and interest in brass playing in Romania. They have a 90 minute programme which shows the diversity of music available to brass players. The repertoire includes: Malcolm Arnold’s Quintet for Brass; Victor Ewald, Quintet No.1; Byrd (arr Elgar Haworth), Fancies Toyes and Dreames; Granados (arr Morgan) Spanish Dance No.5; Horowitz, Musical Suite; and solo unaccompanied items by members of the group. As Huw Morgan, first trumpet of the quintet muses, ‘The crux of the reason for our being there is to encourage the competitors and to be an inspiration to younger and potential musicians…it would be good to come away thinking we’ve achieved something like that.’ Huw is optimistic of good audiences because ‘live music is more a part of Romanian culture’.Huw first became interested in Romanian music when he played Georges Enesco’s Legende for the BBC Young Musican of the Year competition. He hopes to play an Enesco solo piece whilst in Romania.
The quintet will be performing on 12th July in Targu Mures at the Palace of Culture. At 6pm on Tuesday 13th the quintet will play at Sighisoara, a small, fortified medieval town. At 6pm on Wednesday 14th the quintet will perform in Biertan which features a Saxon fortified church recently restored and added to UNESCO's World Heritage List. Finally on the evening of Thursday 15th July the Quintet will play in Bucharest at a concert sponsored by the British Council at the Nemtoi Art Gallery in the evening.
The
Foundation was
established in 1997 with the aim of keeping alive the memory of CONSTANTIN
SILVESTRI - conductor, composer, pianist - who has been compared to Karajan
and Barbirolli: ‘the Silvestri phenomenon’ (The Gramophone). It all started with the London Schubert Players travelling 1,300 miles to bring gifts, entertain and make friends with 2,000 Romanian disabled children and teenagers. The pianist Anda Anastasescu, the orchestra's founder, coached the group to perform a short work by Constantin Silvestri Three Pieces for Strings which they found riveting. They played it to enthusiastic public concert audiences as well as to the children. Their concert in the Athenaeum Hall in Bucharest was recorded live and the idea of reviving Silvestri's memory in Britain and Romania was born.
Chetham’s School of Music was founded 350 years ago as an orphanage for boys in 1653. In 1969 Chetham’s was re-founded as a specialist music school. 280 pupils are admitted on the basis of musical aptitude and the school is open to all, irrespective of financial or social background through an extensive and generous grant scheme funded by the government. Indeed, more than 80% of entrants come from Local Authority maintained schools. Chetham’s School is at the forefront of music education in Britain and Europe and exists to educate exceptionally gifted children. Boys and girls are admitted solely on the basis of musical potential. Pupils develop a specialist interest to the highest level, in any instrument and in a variety of styles.
Back row: Huw Morgan (trumpet) from South Wales, Robert Lovell (French horn) from Irlam Manchester,Ross Clarke (trumpet)from Gwynedd. Front row Paul Dormand (tuba) from Merseyside, Peter Crocker (trombone) from Stockport (not shown). The quintet was set up in September 2003 under the tuition of Brian Kingsley, principal tuba player of Opera North.
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