Interview With A Bass Trombonist: Stephen Saunders

BBC Symphony Orchestra Bass Trombonist Stephen Saunders is the next subject in this line of interviews. After reading Stephen’s biography below, you will recognize the astonishing variety of musical personalities he has, and the great success that he has enjoyed in the musical scene of London for some three-plus decades. Of particular interest to the early music lover will be Stephen’s sackbut playing and his involvement with His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts.

I am having some difficulty posting photos at the moment with Blogger, but hope to include a few of Stephen as soon as I work out the bugs. In the meantime, I encourage you to visit His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts website at: http://www.hmsc.co.uk/

There you will find a photo of Stephen and an absolutely stunning photo of this fine ensemble.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra website can be found at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/orchestras/symphonyorchestra/

Enjoy this interview, and be sure to read all the way to the end. You will be rewarded with one of the most hilarious accounts of brass instrument mishaps I have ever read.

Biography

Stephen Saunders won an Exhibition to Trinity College of Music and afterwards studied at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama 1969 to 1972 under Denis Wick. Whilst at The Guildhall he developed his ability to double on all the low brass: Euphonium, Tuba and Bass Trombone. An interest in early music led him to take up the Bass Sackbut as well as becoming one of the first to join the “authentic” movement on a variety of what then were obsolete instruments. A founder member of such ensembles as The London Classical Players, Age of Enlightenment and The Academy of Ancient Music he and his fellow trombone players revived a menagerie of narrow and large bore trombones, serpents, ophicleides, valve Trombones and buccines in what has turned out to be the heyday of recording when nearly every piece of classical music was re- recorded in a digital format for the new Compact Disk.

Stephen was for many years a session musician being first call for all of London’s contractors and playing every type of music in TV and recording studios. Many famous recording artists have Stephen on their recordings from Michael Nyman to Julie Andrews, Pink Floyd to Paul McCartney, Benny Hill and Rowan Atkinson, Elton John, The Carpenters etc.etc.

He played with The Philip Jones Brass Ensemble and London Symphony Brass Ensemble. As well as appearing as Principal Bass Trombone with all the major symphony orchestras and Opera houses in Great Britain he also managed to fit in 18 years with The National Philharmonic Orchestra, which was London’s premier recording orchestra specialising in film and commercial music as well as recording huge operas each year with Pavaroti, Domingo, Joan Sutherland et al .

Still with a very varied musical diet he is currently a member of the Amsterdam based Orchestra of the 18th Century, His Magestys Sagbutts & Cornetts, Orchestra Romantic e Revolutionaire, London Baroque Soloists and in 1992 took the position of principal Bass Trombone with The BBC Symphony Orchestra

The Interview:

Matthew Guilford: Why do you play the bass trombone?

Stephen Saunders: I have always had a fascination for the sonority of low instruments. Playing the bass line is for me much more satisfying than playing a tune.

M.G.: When did you decide your make music your career?

S.S.: I had no idea people could make a career playing the Trombone until people started to offer me payment for what I would have done for enjoyment. It was a profession I drifted into.

M.G.: Were your parents supportive of your career choice?

S.S.: Yes.

M.G.: What were the factors involved in choosing a college?

S.S.: My brass teacher at school Idris Rees, Tuba playing bandsman in the Welsh Guards, put me forward for an Exhibition at Trinity College of Music, which I won. After a few years there I found the person to study with was Denis Wick. So an introduction was made and he invited me to study at The Guildhall School of Music & Drama where now I am a Professor.

M.G.: What/who were your biggest musical influences early on? What about now?

S.S.: All my musical life every sort of style that exists week by week has influenced me. I can’t believe how music can be so diverse,: ethnically, historically- pop, jazz, classical, you name it I am continually listening to everything

M.G.: Did you consider any career(s) other than music?

S.S.: The careers that I was told to aspire to were to be either a draughtsman or a bank manager. I was warned how difficult it would be to find work as a musician. As it has turned out there was never a day out of work as a trombone player and there are no such things as bank managers or draughtsman now.

M.G.: What do you like to do completely outside of music?

S.S.: Fishing with my daughter, hopefully we don’t actually catch anything-it’s just great to be outdoors.

M.G.: What is your pet-peeve with your students?

S.S.: They all try to sound so heavy instead of like a musical instrument.

M.G.: What is the best piece of advice you can give to an aspiring young bass trombonist?

S.S.: Listen to other instruments not just other trombone players and copy the way they play. Have a wide musical perspective.

M.G.: What are some of the highlights of your career?

S.S.: I still remember doing Mahler Cycles with Loren Marzel and the Philharmonia in the 70’s as the best concerts I have taken part in. The Philharmonia was on top form in those days and sitting next to Ray Premru enabled me to find out all I needed to know about playing the bass trombone. Going around the world in six weeks with the Monteverdi Choir conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Playing Bruckner with Gunter Wand and the BBC Symphony orchestra. Not just famous conductors, working with brass playing collegues: Maurice Murphy, Dereck Watkins, James Watson and Don Lusher made me feel privileged to be in the same studio with them.

M.G.: What is the strangest thing to have happened during your musical career?

S.S.: Probably the most bizarre occurrence was in the early 1970’s playing in a West End Show at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden. I was playing euphonium and had an important soloistic part to play in a show called “Billy” A little pushed for time I arrived at the theatre and went to the bandroom locker where I used to hang my instrument on a coat hook not bothering to put it away in its case after each show. I was last into the pit and the overture began straight away. After a few bars I had a solo to play which started well but became worse and worse getting sharp and losing volume. A particularly unpleasant Musical Director who shall remain nameless (Alf Railston) was glaring at me and went completely mad when the solo came back at the end of the piece and I couldn’t get a single note out of the euphonium!.

It occurred to me that perhaps something wrong with the instrument so I began to remove each valve slide and blow through it to see where the blockage was. Still under the poisonous glare of the MD who by now was scribbling something about me in the theater incident book, I got to the main tuning slide and when I put it into my mouth to blow through it I felt something fluffy on my tongue. I held it out and looked at a pair of beady little eyes and some whiskers sticking out of the tube. It was a rat! I had just put a rat in my mouth!

I think it was the tuba player who took it from me and shook it out into a large can we used as ash trays in those days while I ran out to the band room bar and rinsed my mouth out with vodka. I finished the first act hearing the rat running around the can until it managed to escape.

During the interval I went to see the theater manager to complain about vermin in my euphonium. After a pointless discussion about whether it was a mouse or a rat he told me there was a problem because the Covent Garden vegetable market had closed down and all the rats had come into the theaters for food. He than told me that at the beginning of the show a female member of the audience had, after using the toilet facilities, pulled up her tights (panty hose) with a rat inside. I suddenly thought perhaps I had got off quite lightly and said no more but always put my instrument in its case after that.

M.G.: What is the last book (or books) you have read?

S.S.: Restoration and Reformation by William Roscoe Estep and lots of Spanish Language courses at the moment

M.G.: What’s in your I-Pod?

S.S.: Mainly podcasts. Lectures from Berkley, Scientific programmes from ABC. At the moment I am listening to the Reith Lectures downloaded from the BBC,co.uk web site given by conductor Daniel Barenboim. Absolutely inspirational.

M.G.: How does sackbut playing enhance/detract from your bass trombone playing?

S.S.: Playing early music puts you in an environment where you think much more about phrasing and expression than you would in a Symphony Orchestra. Players (sadly) are more conservative in modern orchestras. If asked to be expressive they would probably just Play Louder!

M.G.: Stephen, thank you so much for sharing your time stories with us.