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In January David Whitehouse joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra from the Philharmonia. David Read spoke to him about his training that provided a springboard into these internationally renowned orchestras, just after he got back from the LPO’s tour of Hong Kong, Taipei, Abu Dhabi and Seoul.
David Whitehouse So where did it all begin? I started when I was 11 at school. It was a very good school musically and they had a lot going on. They had a brass ensemble run by Bryan Allen who was in Fine Arts Brass at the time, two concert bands and three orchestras. I used to sing in a couple of choirs too – always busy with music! And did you get a lot of support from the teachers? Yes, absolutely. The music staff there were great. Although when it became apparent that I wanted to go into the profession they actually did their best to put me off! They said it was very hard to make a living and there are no guarantees of regular money and all that. I suppose though it was good that they were making me aware of what it is like, but I ignored it and ploughed on really. I went to music college, gradually got the odd gig over my time there, before getting higher profile work over the years. This gradually built up until I got the job in the Philharmonia when I was 32. I spent six years there before this latest move to the LPO. And when was the period you really worked the hardest on your playing – was it at college? My teacher at school took me up to grade 8, which I got when I was about 13, and he felt he’d taken me as far as he could. I think I was very lucky that he admitted that, because he could easily have held on to me and perhaps I wouldn’t have progressed as far. It was suggested I went to London for lessons, and by a complete fluke my mum’s singing teacher put us in touch with her cousin who was in the BBC Symphony Orchestra. To be honest we didn’t have a clue, but Chris Mowat actually turned out to be a fantastic teacher. He did various things like changing my embouchure and working on various bits of technique. And I’d never heard playing like it – he made such a lovely sound and had perfect note production – it was so inspirational. By the last year of school I’d got into the National Youth Orchestra and played Gurrelieder and Belshazzar’s Feast, which was lucky because the Walton was one of my A-Level set-pieces and I don’t think I’d have known it anywhere near as well had we not done it in the NYO! 18 | Summer 2008 | The Trombonist
And finally can you tell us a little about your tour in the Far East? Was it work, work, work? Actually it was really nice. Over the two and a half weeks we had a few days off which gave us some time to explore the places. On one of the days off, the LPO played a football match against the Seoul Philharmonic and since I wasn’t on the pitch, I did a “Barmy Army” with some of the other brass members and played songs to cheer them along. We also went to a lovely private beach attached to the hotel in Abu Dhabi. Hong Kong was great for gadget shopping and I also managed to get fitted for some made-to-measure tails when I was there. And I shall take many happy memories with me from the Philharmonia. Byron, Alistair Mackie, Mark Calder and myself all play golf, so on tours to Baden-Baden and Paris we arranged matches: trombones vs trumpets. The trumpets would disagree here, but they always cheated on handicaps and ended up winning!
David Whitehouse looks forward to summers playing at Glyndebourne.
So I probably did the most practice when working with Chris on changing my embouchure. I suppose most people do the most intense work at college, but I was very fortunate to have a top drawer trombone teacher before college who’d sorted out many of the fundamental technical things in my playing – production, sound, embouchure etc. So at Guildhall my teachers Peter Gane and Eric Crees could focus more on my musical side. But of course there was technique to improve too – there always is! What sort of freelance playing led up to winning the Philharmonia position? Even when I was doing the trial I didn’t think in my wildest dreams that I’d get a job there since I didn’t have a lot of orchestral experience. I’d been doing a lot of depping in West End Shows, a bit of quintet stuff, some teaching and my most regular higher-level orchestral experience was with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra who were good to me and booked me quite a lot. What was it like when you first joined the Philharmonia? It was quite scary, to be honest. It’s what you spend your whole life aiming and practising
beth with us tonight?”“Yes, that’s fine,” I replied. “Oh, and by the way it’s valve trombone…!” So I did the gig and they asked if I would like to “pop my head over the fence”, do a few dates with them, and see what it was like. You know the Philharmonia is ridiculously busy, doing over 70 dates a year outside London, so there is a lot of driving to Leicester, Bedford, Birmingham, Cardiff, Basingstoke, Plymouth, Truro… you name it. Compare that with the LPO’s tiny handful of dates outside London. Also, the Philharmonia would often work in tied blocks of roughly two weeks, so if you want a day off, you find yourself having to take off the whole two weeks. The LPO blocks are more like 3 or 4 days, so it’s more flexible. The LPO of course goes to Glyndebourne in the summer, but it’s possible to make it a bit of a holiday really, and plenty of the orchestra live in that direction anyway. So I’m looking forward to staying down for a week or two each time, taking my family down there and making a thing of it.
for really, so when you stop to think about it it’s “oh crikey, this is the Philharmonia!” But of course, I tried to concentrate on the fact that they wouldn’t have asked me if they didn’t think I was up to it. In a way it was comforting that it was Byron Fulcher on 1st trombone. If it had been someone who was already at the top of the profession while I was still at college, I think I’d have been petrified. For example if Dudley Bright had still been there, then I’d have been totally awestruck. And Byron of course is an absolutely terrific 1st trombone player, but I had the benefit of being at college with him and whilst I had immense respect for him and his playing, I didn’t put him on a pedestal in the same way. And what attracted you to move to the LPO? There doesn’t seem much difference on the face of it – both are 2nd trombone jobs. I didn’t apply for the position originally because that’s how it seemed. The idea started when I went in to play with them last minute last summer. The LPO were at Glyndebourne and Andy Fawbert had unfortunately fallen off his bike. I got the call last minute: “Can you come to play MacThe Trombonist | Summer 2008 | 19