Bones Apart 

July saw Bones Apart travelling to Europe to take part in two Festivals.

 

Our first stop was l'Olleria, near Valencia in Spain, to play a concert and give a masterclass as part of the Curso Internacional de Musica Vila de l'Olleria, organised by trombonist Isabel Garcier (of the Glissando Trombone Quartet).

 

We performed a programme of British and American music for a very lively and enthusiastic audience despite the concert not starting until 11pm! The following morning we gave a masterclass, tutoring a very promising quartet, with the help of Juan Manuel Real (principal trombone of Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana) translating. We also met up with our good friend Javier Colomer who was helping with the Festival.

 

This was Jayne's first visit to Spain, and was made very memorable for her by her husband, Martin, who surprised her by flying out for our concert!

 

With just one day to unpack, wash and repack our clothes we then headed off to Finland. Here we were performing two concerts as part of the Lieksa Brass Week, organised by festival director Nina Karkkainen.

 

However, we didn't get off to the best start when we had to run through Helsinki Airport to make our connecting flight to Joensuu. Sadly our luggage didn't make it leaving us with no clothes, toiletries or music! After a quick whizz round Finland's equivalent of Asda for some essentials we were on our way to Lieksa aided by our chauffeur, the lovely Iiro.

 

The Lieksa Brass Week theme this year was female brass players with the trombone being the featured instrument. There were guest artists from all over the world including Carol Jantsch (tuba player with Philadelphia Orchestra), Abbie Conant (trombone soloist/clinician), Lisa Albrecht (Assistant Principal Trombone with New York Philharmonic Orchestra), Judith Saxton (trumpet soloist/clinician), Jonas Bylund (trombone soloist/clinician) and Spanish Brass - Luur Metalls to name just a few!

 

Our first recital took place in Viekijaarvi Church, 25 km from Lieksa where we played an entirely British programme. This included Simon Wills' Sonata and Brian Lynn's Four for Four (both featuring on our latest CD entitled "Four for Four"). The second concert was in the Cultural Centre in Lieksa where we performed a programme of Spanish and American music.

 

The festival is over a week long and very well organised, with masterclasses and recitals taking place all day everyday along with some fantastic post-concert entertainment in the huge "Brass Tent"!

We had a great 2 weeks (apart from the luggage disasters and being eaten alive by evil, killer mosquitoes in Finland) and would like to thank all the organisers for their help.