Wrap Up: Trumpet Afternoon with Rainer Saville and Richard Madden

Earlier this week, Brass Music Specialists and Yamaha Music Australia hosted an afternoon filled with trumpet playing at the Queensland Symphony Orchestra Studios in South Bank, Brisbane.

Over 30 trumpet players, aged 9-50 gathered as Yamaha Artists, and trumpet section of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Rainer Saville and Richard Madden presented a varied afternoon.

Rainer and Richard opened the afternoon with duet and solo performances before telling stories of how they entered the orchestral profession. An inspiring Q&A showed how engaged the audience was, quizzing Rainer about his technique, and his performance of the Tomasi Trumpet Concerto with QSO last month.

Richard then led all participants in some fundamental exercises for tone production and articulation, while imparting knowledge of how he approaches practice, performance, and the mindset of being a musician. Finally, Lyndon from Brass Music Specialists conducted the participants through a sightread of some trumpet ensemble music of all levels with Richard and Rainer. All the students, whether they have been playing for 6 months of 40 years were able to perform a sightread piece with the QSO trumpet section!

"I very much appreciated hearing about their own musical journey and development and listening to their answers to questions from the other participants. Their exercises, tips and insights really made me feel that it is possible - doing good work, instrument practice and playing enjoyment - that later on, mastery of the instrument to one's desired level can be definitely approached.” - Christian Gante, Trumpet Enthusiast

Players were then able to try out a display of trumpets, flugelhorns, and cornets that were brought by Brass Music Specialists, and chat candidly with Rainer and Richard. A fantastic initiative to provide students access to some of the top performers in the country and learn from them.