WINTER 2017 THE TROMBONIST
MEETING SEPTURA BY JANE SALMON
We talk with members of Septura: bass trombone player Dan West and Artistic Directors Simon Cox (founder, trumpet) and Matthew Knight (trombone).
with Matthew Gee, Matthew Knight, Peter Moore and Dan West on trombone and Pete Smith and Sasha Koushk-Jalali on tuba.
Simon Cox: “I always intended to do brass ensemble music but for various reasons, I had not always enjoyed playing in quintets and dectets. I gradually had an idea of a septet and decided to do a PhD at the Royal Academy of Music to look into the whole thing - what kind of repertoire to play, how to approach it and how to develop this focus on serious music.”
Simon Cox: What we do is a bit different to PJBE but the position that they had and the way they inspired all these other groups to form is somewhere we aim to be. We certainly want to become established as a significant chamber music medium.
Credit: Matthew Lloyd
Septura really started to come to life around five years ago and the ensemble is now drawn from some of the leading British brass players. Trumpets include Philip Cobb, Simon Cox, Huw Morgan and Alan Thomas
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Jane Salmon: I can see many connections between your work and that of the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble who famously put brass chamber music on the map. Are you hoping to encourage players to follow your lead too?
Do you see a future for brass equivalent to string chamber music? Could this make up an established part of work for a brass player? SC: I would love to think so, but I’m not sure whether we’d see it in our lifetimes. It would need a big shift in the industry in favour of
programming brass music. I believe strongly that sort of thing is possible and I think the brass septet and the sound it creates is a really special thing. Dan West: It’s down to public perception isn’t it? It’s when people decide that they will consider brass chamber music in the same breath as a string group. I would really like to see a future like that for brass players and I think it would transform the way we approach brass playing. Has working so closely with an ensemble influenced your own playing? SC: Absolutely. When we are doing a lot of Septet playing I feel really differently when I play with an orchestra. I feel so much more confident to just trust my ears. There is often a disconnect with what is being shown by a conductor and what is actually happening. Dealing with those kind of situations becomes so much easier when you just trust yourself to play with the leader, the first oboe, or whoever it might be.