Australian Brass Quintet Residency at YSTCM, January 18-23, 2010
During Australian Brass Quintet’s recent residency at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, I was thoroughly impressed at their commitment to artistic and pedagogical excellence. Their Wednesday night recital performance demonstrated mastery and insight into a number of cornerstones of the modern brass quintet repertoire, including dazzling readings of Anthony Plog’s Mosaics and Jan Bach’s, Laudes. Trumpeter Tristram Williams’s innovative arrangement of Schumann’s Kinderszenen demonstrated that the group was equally at home with pre-twentieth century repertoire.
In observing a number of Australian Brass Quintet’s masterclasses and coaching sessions, it was clear that ABQ coaches expected the same level of brass playing intensity from the students they were coaching, as they clearly do from themselves. Whenever the ABQ coaches perceived deficiencies in the students’ playing, these deficiencies were viewed as pedagogical challenges ready to be overcome, instead of insurmountable obstacles. By encouraging the students to address weaknesses in their own playing, head-on (this often included offering pedagogical tools in order to do so), and by encouraging them to tackle these weak areas with concerted will and perseverance, they were giving the students essential keys for success in professional music making. The atmosphere of pedagogical excellence this created contributed to a fantastic side-by-side concert with ABQ on the final Saturday night concert of the ABQ residency.
There are only a handful of brass ensembles around the world dedicated to performing and preserving the best art music written for the brass quintet, and Australian Brass Quintet is one of the best of them. Although this group has only recently formed as a professional ensemble, they have known and worked with each other for years. The synchronicity they achieve as an ensemble is not only evidenced by their excellent sound, blend and artistic approach, but also in their passionate pedagogical approach, one in which they want their students to experience the joy of brass chamber music as much as they clearly do.
Sincerely,
Brett Stemple
Artist Faculty, Tuba and Head of Brass Studies
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music
