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• A year of Progress
• Review: Nottingham Symphonic Winds, Lakeside Arts Centre

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Learn about the ensembles I've had involvement in:

• Harlequin Brass Ensemble
• Leeds College of Music Wind Ensemble
• National Saxophone Choir of Great Britain
• Nottingham Symphonic Wind Orchestra
• Phoenix Concert Band
• Yorkshire Wind Orchestra

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May 23rd

Last night, the young conductors from Leeds College of Music came to Phoenix to conduct music as the final examination for this module. The nine conductors arrived well prepared and all of them had something to offer in terms of knowledge of the score and communication. The quality of the students owes a lot to what must be a good course at LCM which should help them in any future in the music industry or education.

We have the final group next week which is during half-term so I do hope that the attendance is not a problem.

May 19th

Off to Nottingham this morning and the improved weather has brought more traffic out at this time of day.

The group are preparing a concert which by request is largely orchestral transcriptions. These things are never easy and can be good or bad depending on the arranger. I have chosen carefully and most things do work although I feel that programmes are better chosen by the groups rather than the concert promoters.

Certainly the group will get on top of this programme but whether they manage it on the night will depend on how disciplined the players are in the cathedral at Derby.

I am trying to take the group up a level and to do this requires a level of commitment and care from the players that has not yet pervaded every section. Certainly the best players are showing the way and at times things sound excellent. Some irritating issues with tuning and balance could still pull things down a level or two and they need to be fixed urgently.

As usual the orchestra worked hard on Sunday and there is always a great deal of progress. There has to be! This group plays a lot of concerts and the preparation time is often very tight. They have a loyal and demanding audience who are used to quality and variety. They are tolerant of new works and they welcome the chance to feedback to me at concerts; something they do with an experienced ear after following the group for years.

The journey back was hampered by the Sunday hazards of cyclists, motorbikers, caravans, JCBs, horse boxes going 14 mph for 15 miles, so the journey took 25 minutes longer than usual. With fuel now about £2.50 per gallon more than when I first started going to Nottingham in 2006 and the trip taking 6 hours of the day it is vital that the musical aspects of it all remain positive.

May 18th

Phoenix played a concert in Leeds on Saturday evening. The event was quite well attended although there was scope for a bigger audience. The venue was not ideal, in fact it would not be a place to choose for a wind concert of this type as the layout is all wrong. The group were "stuffed" into a narrow alcove with the first row of the audience some 25 metres away. Once a few brave souls came to sit on the choir stalls it meant that they were closer but having to turn sideways to see. They were also behind me when I walked forward to talk to the "other" audience.

As it was, the band tried to deal with the situation and they played a pretty decent concert. After a rehearsal where balance was really awful, the group tried a bit harder to get some contrast and in this respect the venue helped a little.

Phoenix are quite unique in that they have a really unbalanced line up and a tradition of letting all comers just arrive and sit down. Recently efforts have been made to control this but it is too late for some sections which are over subscribed and heavy.

Sadly, the band lost Paul Moffatt who has been principal clarinet for all of the five years since I started conducting. He has been an excellent player and an example to the group and will be missed; certainly by me.

That is what happens with community bands; two steps forward, one step back. It is a constant battle to keep the group improving and moving forward.

Moving the ethos from one of "coming for a blow" to one of constant desire for improvement requires a change of mind set and some players never manage that change.

When I looked around at the concert I realised that there was about a 50/50 split between original players and players who have joined more recently. Most of the new players attend well, arrive on time and have a good attitude at rehearsals. This is true of a lot of the original players too.

To be fair, I think the band is still improving. As David says in his guestbook entry, there is a better attitude and more ambition. The balance thing will have to be dealt with because the only groups that can survive with those numbers are huge youth bands with 80 players or so.

May 4th

Sunday morning was hard. The group were tired and had worked very hard for Eduard the night before. The rehearsal was a little too noisy and was not producing the improvements I wanted. The programme for the next concert is long and rather odd in places, with a lot of orchestral transcriptions and pieces the band do not know. The pieces they have played before are not recent ones so it will take a lot of effort to prepare for this one. Also the cathedral setting needs to be accounted for in rehearsal as the group did not naturally adapt to the conditions on Saturday.

I am sure that Eduard had a good experience with NSWO. The group were attentive and friendly. They followed him very well and people were complimentary both before and after the concert. To be honest I was very proud of them. It was what I expected, but it is a privilage to be able to harbour such expectation.

3rd May

Off to Nottingham but not off to a great start. The traffic through Leeds is a nightmare and adds an hour to the journey. Eduard is following me in his hired Skoda and has become lost in the lanes behind. Eventually he catches me up on the M1 and I am going 42 mph to allow him to gain on me.

We get there an hour late but still on time for his rehearsal. He looks relaxed and in control.

The rehearsal goes well but the church has one toilet. Not one male and one female toilet. Not one toilet with a few cubicles but one single loo. This for audience and band, a total of over 140 people. Next door there is a small hotel which has one male and one female toilet. It was worth going for a quich soft drink just to get to use it.

The concert went well (see report) although I had been busy since 2.00pm and it was after 8.00pm before I actually conducted anything. It took an effort to retain the concentration and "gnu" to do the job properly. It did work well in the end and the audience went home happy if not desparate for the toilet!

2nd May

Eduard and Uli arrived today and we went out for a nice meal and a few glasses of wine. He has studied his scores well and has good ideas about how Radio Days should be done. I will use the Zoom H2 to record the performance whilst he conducts it tomorrow.

1st May

Today I recorded a clarinet quartet for AS level on the new Zoom H2 recorder. It was so easy to set up and then even easier to check by downloading it into iTunes, then even easier to turn into a CD. I love this machine!