I’m very happy that today my new blog ‘On the Record’ is officially launched! As I wrote in my previous blog I will inform you in the next few months about all the developments around my new solo CD which will be released in july 2017. Yesterday the first recording session took place.
I’m very proud and happy that my own band, Brass Band Schoonhoven with conductor Ivan Meylemans, were willing to work with me again for this project. Two big pieces were to be recorded yesterday. The brand new ‘Underground Concerto’ by our composer-in-residence Christian Overhead and the new concertino ‘Spinning Gears’ by Dutch composer Geert Jan Kroon. In total an amount 30 minutes of complex, challenging but beautiful and exciting music.
On an early saturday morning we all arrived at the recording location, Theater Nesterlé in Nistelrode, a small village in the province of Noord-Brabant. After all the microphones, chairs and percussion were set into place, it was time to do a brief soundcheck. The recordings were done by Anteun Hoesen, a great recording engineer and also euphoniumplayer. My colleague, friend and euphoniumsoloist Renato Meli was listening all day with the scores and he was advising from the recording room to get the best takes.
In total there were 5 recordings sessions during the day. We started off with the 2nd movement from the ‘Underground Concerto’, a beautiful and lyrical movement. In the second and third session we recorded the 1st and 3rd movement of the concerto which are more abstract and funky. The composer, Christian, is a cornet player with Brass Band Schoonhoven so he kept his eyes and ears wide open to see that the recordings were up to a high standard.
After a short break we continued with the recording of the new composition ‘Spinning Gears’, by Geert Jan Kroon. A very exciting and funky piece of music, with lovely slow movements which are both mysterious and romantic. Also Geert Jan came along to join us during the recording session. Around diner time my last challenge was to record the two big cadenzas without the band, both very demanding. Niels Verbeek, percussionist, joined me to record the funky cadenza for euphonium and drums in the 3th movement of the Undergroud Concerto.
After a very long, but very inspiring and motivating day I can’t say anything else but that I’m very happy and proud of what we achieved. A huge thanks to Ivan, Anteun, Renato and Niels for being professionals in every possible way. The atmosphere was as relaxed as a I hoped it would be and the concentration and standard of playing by Brass Band Schoonhoven was just incredible. I’m proud to be part of such an amazing bunch of people and very greatful that they were willing to prepare this project for me.
Also a big thanks to Christian and Geert Jan for providing me with two beautiful pieces, which are really a huge addition to the repertoire for euphonium and brass band. It was great to work with them creating this music, they were really open minded for any comments from me to make the pieces even work better then they already did. I’m really looking forward to perform the premieres of these pieces in the upcoming months. In my next posts I will give you more information about these new compositions and about the composers so you can get a good idea what their music is all about.
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The artistic team from left to right: Renato Meli, Ivan Meylemans, Geert Jan Kroon, Robbert Vos, Christian Overhead, Anteun Hoesen
Robbert Vos 