FINAL MAG

John is a widely recognised composer
and has contributed a great deal to the
trombone repertoire. John’s initial drive
to compose came from working with the
London Contemporary Dance Theatre
in the 70s and 80s. While in rehearsals,
John found great inspiration in physical
shape and movement.
“It is still the case that I am most
frequently motivated to compose by
extra musical ideas – by theatrical ideas,
movement ideas, poetic ideas, visual
impulses. Consequently, a tremendous
amount of my music isn’t published as
it’s not intended for the concert hall - it
has to be reinvented every time it is
performed.
There is a heavy improvisational
element within lots of my music and the
interpretation comes out of conversation
and connection with the performers; yet
it’s composition nonetheless.”
John’s performing, teaching, writing
and creating all centre around his need
to communicate. The trombone is
John’s expressive tool of choice; his
springboard for ideas.
“The trombone is an intensively
expressive instrument – it is an
instrument with huge power, it is
naturally theatrical and it has a great
history with links to ancient families
of instruments that I could not have
imagined existed.
The expressive tools that trombone players
have to hand have been vastly expanded
by the works of Berio, Stockhausen,
Globokar and Xenakis – to name a
few. John has a tremendous fascination
with how these works have added to
our expressive palette and has himself
contributed to normalizing ‘extended
techniques’ by employing these techniques
in his music as a form of expression, but
never as a technical exercise.
John is a Professor at the Guildhall
School and teaches across the country
at specialist institutions including Royal
Conservatoire of Scotland and St Mary’s
Music School, Edinburgh.
“Like many people, certainly of my own
generation – when I was a student I had
not thought of teaching. I wasn’t taught
to teach; in fact, possibly even the
reverse. It’s possibly the case that I went
out into my professional life thinking
that you taught if you couldn’t do. I very
rapidly found that I had to teach,
of course, but I also immediately found
that I liked to teach.
I feel it’s very important for me that if
I teach at the highest level – at the top
flying conservatoires, I have to also
teach little kids who are starting - I must
constantly go back to how it all begins.
I developed a method of teaching kids
on the alto trombone, which Conn
sponsored. In fact, my own son Patrick
learned that way. I love to teach little
children – one of the greatest pleasures
of playing in the Spanish festival I
visited just before Christmas, was to
see what an enormous success our
Spanish cousins are having out there in
teaching little children. I was watching
huge trombone ensembles of little
children playing trombone on stage,
from memory at a really high level.
We are talking octets and even twelvepiece
ensembles with little children on
trombone.
As a teacher at conservatoire level, I
have had a great deal of pleasure over
the years teaching people. Most of those
students thought I was teaching them,
but in actual fact they were teaching
me. You will find a lot of teachers say
that - and they say it because it’s true.
Our students mirror our own ideas and
our own problems, forcing us to think
about our own reactions, our own taste,
and our own problems. In the process
of discussing, demonstrating working
with every single student, you discover
an enormous amount about yourselves.
You discover things you couldn’t
discover any other way.
Teaching is very important, it’s a lot
of fun and everyone is very different.
At the Guildhall, I have the enormous
privilege of having an interesting role in
which trombone is only a part of what
I do. In fact it’s the smallest part of
what I do. I get to work right across our
Wind, Brass and Percussion department
and get to work with other people who
come through the door as well. So, I
suppose my role is primarily to discuss
ideas, and that’s where I work best.
Working with ideas. In any teaching
situation where I get to the point of
working with ideas as opposed to just
nuts and bolts, that’s where it gets really
enjoyable; it really propels. That works
with little kids too, because in that sense
– working with ideas – I often work
with story telling. I am telling stories
and I am trying to get people to react
to stories; react to expressing ideas that
aren’t necessarily musical but music
helps express the idea.”
This year is set to be John’s busiest year
yet as his ambitions and discoveries
continue to develop. John plans to
continue his work with the European
Music Archaeology Project and is set
to perform 0n a newly reconstructed
instrument in Tarquin, Rome. Pandora’s
Box will be visiting the International
Trombone Festival and also have plans
to record The Barony A Frame - Scott
Lygate’s new work for the ensemble.
John will perform and lecture in
Tenerife, Malta, France and Italy and
is currently composing a new piece for
two carnyces. There are new works on
the way for the HeadSpace ensemble
too, who hope to make an album in the
Autumn. John also has plans to work
with the TNT Theatre Group in Munich,
creating music for Shakespeare’s
Twelfth Night.
“This is another year full of composing,
teaching, creating and discovering.
There are new things appearing too
– I’ve just had a request from one of
the most exciting jazz musicians in
Scotland, Chick Lyall, who wants to
create a piece for piano, electronics and
trombone. I’m looking forward to that
very much indeed.”
These are just a few of John’s
achievements; to be awarded the
ITA’s Lifetime Achievement Award
is particularly fantastic as this is just
John’s story so far.
“People can do things that I can’t
imagine, because I am not those
people. We have a wonderful panoply
of possibilities as trombone players
– it’s never been a better time to be a
trombone player. When I think about it,
that’s my final reaction – my goodness,
some people have given me an award
for simply enjoying myself for the last
35 years. It’s not a job, it’s my life and
I certainly don’t feel that I have had a
lifetime yet – I have only just started.
John has shaped a life that is undefined
and unbound and continues to inspire
his colleagues and countless musicians
across the world. The British Trombone
Society are delighted to have had
the opportunity to talk to John and
very much look forward to sharing
more about his work in the future.
Congratulations again, John!
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