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BRASS: Durham International Festival 2009

on June 08 2009, by Jo

From the 12th to the 17th July Bella Tromba will be heading up North to Durham for BRASS: Durham International Festival 2009.


Blowing its way across County Durham this year's festival offers everything from traditional brass bands to afro-beat, Balkan brass madness to classical ensembles, folk-brass to contemporary jazz.


At the last count there were over 40 events, many of them free, with at least 40 brass ensembles and 250 top-class artists from Mexico, Iceland, Austria, Germany, Macedonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Canada, Cuba, Switzerland, USA, Nigeria, the Netherlands and the UK.


We have a fairly hectic schedule at BRASS 2009 with an average of three concerts a day at local schools and community centres. At the end of the week we will perform a recital at Elvet Church with several new additions to our repertoire. Maxwell Davies' Fanfare for Carinthia is a typically dramatic opening and contrasts perfectly with the sublime dance melodies of Henri Tomasi's Suite for Three Trumpets. The Max is available on the Max Opus label alongside one of our other favourites Telos 135. As we go into banding territory again Vickie, freshly enthused from the Whit Friday Marches at the weekend, insisted we include a new piece with a flavour of this heritage. So we will be including Rodriguez's Concierto De Aranjuez made famous by the film Brassed Off. Miles Davies take on it in his Sketches of Spain album isn't bad either! We will finish off the evening with our rendition of The Carnival of Venice.



We hope you can join us.


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