Moving On – A New Life at Shrewsbury International School, Bangkok

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Bangkok, Brass, education, Paul Archibald, teaching, thailand, Trombone, Trumpet, Tuba

2020 has been quite a year. For many of us working in the arts, our lives have changed beyond recognition. Covid-19 continues to spread throughout the world and we have all had to find ways to cope with its devastation. 

Returning to ‘normal’ no longer seems to be an option and the ‘new normal’ hasn’t quite materialised yet but we probably have a rough idea how things will turn out. More hand washing, sanitising and social distancing and less travel, concerts and sporting events for us to attend.

In common with many of my professional colleagues, many of the orchestras and ensembles I am associated with are no longer giving performances. When these performances do take place they have much reduced personnel to make them commercially viable. 

Most performances have been cancelled due to Covid-19

But amongst this gloom there is some positive news as I now have a wonderful opportunity to focus on my teaching life and to work in a vibrant community that will be stimulating and challenging. 

On August 14th I move to Thailand to take up the position as Head of Woodwind and Brass at Shrewsbury International School, Bangkok, one of Asia’s top schools. 

Music is a flagship for Shrewsbury International School and the music department is renowned for staging high quality concerts and recitals. The school has an international roster of specialist music teachers with many students progressing to the finest music conservatoires and universities, often pursuing a professional career. 

Chris Seal, the Principal of the school, has been a top cricketer and is well versed in the complexities of the music scene as his brother, Michael, is a professional conductor, currently Associate Conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

Chris Seal – Principal, Shrewsbury International School

The Music School enjoys a beautiful space overlooking the river. It is progressive in design with teaching rooms, multiple practice rooms, a dedicated (Mac) computer suite and specialised rehearsal space, centred around an outstanding Recital Hall with Concert Grand Piano. Major performances are staged in the 600 seat Memorial Hall Auditorium, complete with with its own Steinway Grand Piano.

All students from EY1 to Y9 enjoy music lessons as part of their timetabled curriculum learning, with a number of students going on to study the subject at GCSE and A-Level.

Year 5/6 classes also have one lesson of brass/woodwind tuition, where they are given access to an array of instrument resources, bought especially for this purpose and which has led to many students choosing to pursue the study of these instruments individually as part of the school’s co-curricular programme.

Canterbury Field

I’m also looking forward to working with Rowena Calvert, a superb London-based cellist, who joins the school as Head of Strings. Rowena and I have often shared the concert stage as performers so it will be a delight to collaborate with her on a variety of projects at Shrewsbury International School.

Rowena Calvert starts her position as Head of Strings in September 2020

Arban Bootcamp

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4barsrest, Arban, Brass, Brass Bands, Brett Baker, cornet, Geneva Instruments, Iwan Fox, Paul Archibald, teaching, Trumpet

When Brett Baker, General Manager for Geneva Instruments, invited me to create a practice regime for lockdown as part of a collaboration between the company and 4barsrest, I was delighted to accept, of course, but it did raise a few questions as to the best way to structure my ideas.

Brett Baker and Geneva Instruments

At the time of the invitation, the world had shut down for business and we were under strict instructions to ‘stay at home’. Clearly, this regime had to be both productive but also reassuring. I didn’t feel it was the right moment to introduce some revolutionary concepts using material that would be difficult to acquire and I felt the regime needed to be both playable, familiar but also challenging.

Keeping things familiar during lockdown

Probably like most brass players, I’ve become used to the idea that all the best thinking for practice regimes had been developed relatively recently. Most of the greatest players around now are passionate educators and there are many superb methods and study books available for us to really take things to the highest level.

Much to my shame, the Arban method was gathering dust on the shelf as I’d subconsciously filed it away as a classic book but perhaps a little old fashioned for today’s modern, multi-dimentional, multi-talented cornet/trumpet player.

An early edition of Arban’s Cornet Method

However, I had revisited Arban’s timeless Characteristic Study No 1 just to give it a GarageBand revamp which I have cheekily recreated as Arbanista No 1. You can check it out here when you have a moment.

https://paularchibald.wordpress.com/2020/04/18/arbanista-no-1/

Looking through the book once again I was quickly reminded that any player who mastered this method would have a solid and secure technical foundation at the end of it. All I had to do was structure some of the material into manageable sections that, when bundled together, would create an enjoyable and inspiring practice session but ultimately ensure that the time spent was worth the effort in terms of personal musical development. And so the Arban Bootcamp was born! Checkout the Arban Bootcamp video here:

https://vimeo.com/417172704

Once the exercises are familiar the Bootcamp takes around 45-50 minutes to play and it’s a great workout once completed. Once band and orchestra rehearsals, concerts and contests restart you’ll be in great shape and ahead of the game. It will be a great feeling I can promise you….

Requiem to the Old World (1st Movt)

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Anna Segal, Armenian State Opera, Magda Marian, Paul Archibald, requiem, soprano, Trumpet

Anna Segal is a Ukrainian-born composer living in Israel. I first met Anna during one of her visits to London and it was a thrill for me to perform her Trumpet Concerto with the London Mozart Players and to commission her to write a Double Trumpet Concerto, again with the London Mozart Players and my friend and colleague, Peter Wright.

Anna Segal

Anna’s works are regularly performed by many orchestras, ensembles including the Berliner Symphoniker, London Mozart Players Orchestra, Ukraine National Philharmonic Orchestra and Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and, as you’ll hear, her music has a depth and quality that engages immediately engages the listene. Her lyrical style lends itself  beautifully to the distinctive sound of the trumpet. 

It seemed appropriate, therefore, the first movement of her ‘Requiem to the Old World’ should feature a soprano with trumpet as soloists. At the time of recording the world was locked down  as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic so the recording was made virtually in our homes but I hope we were able to do justice to Anna’s exquisite music

The soprano soloist is Magda Marian who is a principal with the Armenian State Opera.

Arbanista No 1

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Arban, Brass, Brass Bands, cornet, euphonium, Horn, Paul Archibald, teaching, tenor horn, Trombone, Trumpet, Tuba

After three weeks of lockdown it’s been a joy to see my social media feed move on from Brexit to (almost) non–stop music making as friends and colleagues turn to performing online.

From solo performances in the garden of Somewhere Over The Rainbow to complex group performances complete with multi-screen images of all the musicians, the range of creativity and ingenuity has been astonishing. It’s heartening to see the important role music still has in our lives and how much pleasure we derive from performing even the simplest of melodies.

I’ve been doing most of my practice with a practice mute (the joys of living in a flat in London) but I have occasionally given the neighbours full blast to record some of my efforts. I’ve rediscovered the joys and complexities of the Jean Baptiste Arban’s Cornet Method, an extraordinary piece of work written in 1864. The method just about covers everything you need in order to master the technicalities of performing a valved instrument.

So, to keep things interesting, I thought I’d give Arban’s Characteristic Study No 1 the Garageband treatment just to liven things up a little. I hope you enjoy this version and apologies to Arban purists. Might be best to turn away now….

https://soundcloud.com/user-849129909/arban-study-no-1

Those Magnificent Men and Women

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Brass, Brass Bands, cornet, euphonium, Horn, Iwan Fox, Paul Archibald, Regent Brass, tenor horn, Trombone, Trumpet, Tuba

Like many other brass bands, the Coronavirus pandemic has put paid to rehearsals and concerts for the foreseeable future. Regent Brass, however, are continuing to perform online so as part of our big thank you to the NHS and key workers we decided to offer our version of the classic theme from the film, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying machines.

We’ve adapted the title of course to include everyone who is playing an important role in keeping the country safe and secure during the lockdown We’ve also put together a video that we hope will be both amusing and show off the wonderful players that we have in the band.

To make the recording, each player recorded their part asa video whilst in isolation at home, working alongside a guide track, which was then put together to form a wonderful performance full of energy and vigour.

Please spare a few moments to look at the video and please leave any comments if you have enjoyed our performance.

Regent Brass perform Those Magnificent Men and Women

We’ll be making more videos during the lockdown so stay in touch….

Regent Brass: An English Autumn

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Brass Bands, cornet, euphonium, John McCabe, Noting Hill, Paul Archibald, Regent Brass, Richard Rodney Bennett, tenor horn, Trombone, Tuba

SATURDAY 20TH OCTOBER 2018

St Peter’s Church
Kensington Park Road
Notting Hill
London W11 2PN

TICKETS £10/£5 on the door or online https://www.wegottickets.com/event/451920
regentbrass.com  Facebook: regentbrasslondon

PROGRAMME

Elgar Howarth Music from an Elizabethan Court
Erik Leidzen Happy Day (soloist: Paul Archibald)
Richard Rodney Bennett The Flowers of the Forest
Dean Goffin Light of the World
Peter Yarde Martin Fabulous Gecko (soloist: Adrian Parker)
John McCabe Cloudcatcher Fells

It’s exciting times for Regent Brass at the moment. Based in Wembley the band are now part of the top-tier of brass banding in the UK having been promoted to the Championship section for 2019. This means, of course, the players need to be right on top of their game to maintain consistency at the highest level of contesting but, it also gives us the opportunity to reflect on the direction the band should take in the coming years.

Brass bands are not all about contesting of course. Since the early 19C brass bands have been a vibrant part of the community beginning as part of the effort to provide working class men, primarily in the northern industrial provinces of England, a social and cultural outlet. From these very humble beginnings many of today’s top class bands consist of highly skilled musicians of professional calibre.

As part of the artistic development of Regent Brass the band is focussing on original music by well-established composers and introducing and commissioning new works from young composers who are making their mark as professional writers.

The programme begins with Elgar Howarth’s treatment of three pieces taken from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, the primary source of keyboard music from the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods in England, Music From an Elizabetheh Court. Erik Leidzen’s cornet solo, Happy Day, is a real classic and one of the composer’s most well known works. Originally born in Sweden, Leidzen emigrated to the US where he influenced the next generation of American brass composers including Stephen Bulla and Bruce Broughton.

Richard Rodney Bennett’s The Flowers of the Forest, was commissioned by the BBC for performance by the National Youth Brass Band at the 1989 BBC Promenade concerts at the  Royal Albert Hall, conducted by Sir Charles Groves. The work is based on a folksong, The Flowers of the Forest, believed to date from 1513, the time of the Battle of Flodden, in the course of which the archers of the Forest (a part of Scotland) were killed almost to a man.

Dean Goffin was one of New Zealand’s most prolific Salvation Army composers and spent much of his life working as Salvation Army officer, holding the positions of National Bandmaster and National Secretary for Bands and Songster Brigades, eventually returning to New Zealand as Territorial Commander. He was knighted in the 1983 Queens Birthday Honours List. Light of the World, based on Holman Hunt’s painting of the figure of Jesus preparing to knock on an overgrown and long-unopened door, is perhaps one of the most moving and emotional pieces in the Salvation Army canon.

Peter Yarde Martin is a super-talented young composer whose music has been played by orchestras such as London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Britten Sinfonia. His compostions explore spaces connecting the disparate musical world in which he works: experimental and familiar, old and new, sacred and secular. Fabulous Gecko for solo tuba and brass band (2016) was premiered by Barnet Youth Band with Jonathan Beresford at Moss Hall in 2016 and shows the lighter side of Peter’s writing.

The final work in the programme is perhaps one of the greatest pieces written for brass band, John McCabe’s Cloudcatcher Fells. Commissioned by Boosey & Hawkes as the test piece for the 1985 National Brass Band Championships the work comprises four movements played continuously. Each movement consists of sections associated with mountainous places, mostly in the area of Patterdale in the English Lake District.

Performance Anxiety: 4 Bars Rest Hits the Spot

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Brass, English Brass Academy, Horn, Paul Archibald, Trombone, Trumpet, Tuba

Even the best suffer performance anxiety…

On Sunday June 8 2014 I’m organising an Introduction to Managing Performance Anxiety course on behalf of the English Brass Academy at Putney High School. It should be a great couple of sessions as I’ve invited Andy Evans, himself a musician but also one of the UK’s top performance psychologists, to talk about this delicate subject.

I spoke to Iwan Fox, editor of 4 Bars Rest, the world’s most popular website for brass band news, about this topic and he, wisely, linked the whole area of performance anxiety amongst musicians to football and footballers. You can read his article here:

http://www.4barsrest.com/news/detail.asp?id=18727#.U41ceNq9KSM

As the World Cup in Brazil is only a few weeks away I suppose we’re all bracing ourselves for the inevitable penalty shoot out in which England seems to constantly embroil itself and, of course, we know the outcome is usually bad news for our poor fellas. I get the impression that football is a macho type of game and these guys really don’t talk about getting ‘the pearlies’ just before they take that shot before 2 billion people.

Maybe musicians are the same. We feel we need to be ‘bullet proof’ that, as professional musicians we need to be above all that. I recently sat on the examination panel for a final recital at a music college and my colleague on the panel, yes – an academic – castigated the poor girl for being nervous. You see – it’s perceived as unacceptable for musicians to be worried or show apprehension. It’s seen as a weakness. Perhaps its the same in football.

Well, I’m hoping that the Introduction to Managing Performance Anxiety will help highlight this problem for many musicians and Andy Evans is certainly a guy who knows his stuff. If you want more information about the event take a look at the English Brass Academy website at:

http://englishbrassacademy.co.uk/locationhome.php?location=7

The session commences bright and early at 9.00am. There’ll be coffee and nibbles and it’ll be a relaxed, informal day in a supportive atmosphere. Look forward to seeing you on Sunday…

 

‘Götterdämmerung’ at La Scala

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Daniel Barenboim, Gotterdammerung, La Scala, Paul Archibald

I have just returned from Milan, where I was President of the jury to appoint the next principal trumpet at this most prestigious of opera houses. Whilst there, I was invited to attend the preview performance before the Opening Night of arguably Wagner’s greatest opera – ‘Götterdämmerung’.

La Scala, Milan

It proved to be an evening of superlatives. La Scala, the building, is a most impressive sight with its tiered boxes encapsulating the weight of tradition and history that emanates from the magnificent interior.

The music begins and immediately you are transported into a nether world of Rhine-Maidens, Valkyrie, Gibichungs, the epic love story of Siegfried and Brünnhilde and, of course, the Ring of the Nibelung. The orchestra sounded magnificent with glorious playing, in particular from the wind and brass, whose motifs guided us through the complications of the plot, continually hinting at the action and characters on stage.

This new production, shared between La Scala, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin and in collaboration with the Toneelhuis, Antwerp, employed stunning sets designed by Guy Cassiers, but the highlight of the evening, visually, was the astonishing video effects of fire and brimstone by Arjen Klerkx and Kurt D’Haeseleer. Given the performance took 6 hrs and 5 mins to complete the action on stage was awe-inspiring and at no point were you even thinking about looking at your watch!

As you would expect the singing was world-class in quality and projection and, given the huge orchestration employed by Wagner, you never felt that the voices were swamped or diminished in tone. Lance Ryan as Siegfried, Mikhail Petrenko as a revolting Hagan, Gerd Grochowski as the pathetic Gunther and, magnificent in her role as the number one femme fatale of all time was Iréne Theorin as Brünnhilde, incomparable in this role.

Superbly conducted by Karl-Heinz Steffens with Daniel Barenboim taking over the reins on May 30 this production is as good as it gets in terms of the visual elements, choreography, singing and orchestral playing. If La Scala is perceived as the number one opera house in the world then this production only consolidates that position. It’ll take some beating….