Abbey Brass Ensemble perform brass music ancient and modern

PROGRAMME OF MUSIC

Matthew Locke: Music for his Majesty's Sackbuts and Cornetts

1 Air 2 Courante 3 Allemande 4 Courante 5 Allemande 6 Saraband

Giles Farnaby: Five Miniatures for Harpsichord

1 The Old Spagnoletta 2 His Rest 3 Tell Me Daphne 4 His Dreame 5 A Toye

Lennon and Macartney: Yesterday

Scott Joplin: Gladiolus Rag

Edvard Grieg: The Last Spring

Andrew Wilson: Tropical Fruits

1 La Sapodilla 2 Mango Tango 3 Velvet Tamarind 4 Calypso Carambola

INTERVAL

John Hammond: Fanfare in D

Judy Whitlock: Bright Lights in the Autumn Night

1 Jupiter 2 Saturn 3 Mars 4 La Luna 5 Our Blue Planet

JP Sousa: Washington Post

William Handy (arr Wasson): St Louis Blues

ANDREW M WILSON was born in 1960 and studied at Trinity College and London University.

Formerly Director of Music at Kelly College, in 2014 he became the Vice Principal of the National College of Music, London. His orchestral, chamber, and vocal works have been recorded, published and performed all over the world, from Paris to Tokyo and regularly broadcast on BBC Radio 3. He has won many international awards including the Northern California Viola Society Composition Competition 2020. He was a finalist in the 2022 NYC Contemporary Music Symposium at Columbia University and a featured composer at the 2022 London New Wind Festival and the European Composers’ Network Lisbon, Portugal 2023 and is shortlisted for the 2024 John Armitage Memorial Award.

Commissions have included “The Pilgrim Fathers” for Southampton’s Mayflower 400celebrations, “The Morgowr” for the Cornwall Youth Orchestra’s 50th Anniversary concert and “Aiming at Eternity” for the 2023 Wren 300 commemoration. He was composer in residence at the 2022 Cornwall Horn Festival in Truro. Recent premieres include, “The Courage Lies Within You” commissioned by the University of Alabama Chamber Trio; the Concerto for Horn and Strings “The Blue Boy” and “Earth Signs” for Violin and Orchestra. In 2021 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Johann Pestalozzi University, Miami, Florida.

TROPICAL FRUITS is a suite composed in 2017 especially for Abbey Brass, who gave the first performance in St Mary’s Church, Penzance. Since then, it has been published and taken up by a number of other ensembles.

JUDY WHITLOCK was born in 1961 and with a Music Degree from Durham University and a PGCE from Cambridge she moved to Cornwall in 1983 to begin a long teaching career. After gaining an M.A. in Music for Film and T.V. in the ‘90s, she has built a reputation locally as a composer.

Judy has had 3 pieces commissioned by Plymouth Symphony Orchestra: ‘Eclipse’, ‘Dartmoor Letterboxes’ and ‘Star-gazing’ for soprano and orchestra.‘Eclipse’ will be performed again by the PSO at the Tavistock Festival in April.

In 2021 she was composer and MD for ‘Heaven’s Thunder’, a unique live performance combining horses and music involving 50 singers and instrumentalists. Her brass quintet piece ‘Bright Lights in the Autumn Night’ was premiered at the 2022 Dartmouth Festival.

Judy, who lives in Looe, is also very well-known in the region as a Jazz Singer; Jazz, Tango & Classical Double Bassist; Pianist; Flautist and Secondary School Head of Music.

BRIGHT LIGHTS IN THE AUTUMN NIGHT is a 15-minute piece for brass quintet reflecting Judy’s love of the night sky. When commissioned by tuba player Martin Cleave of Abbey Brass to create a new piece for them, Judy chose the 3 planets visible every night in Autumn 2020 as her inspiration.