On Monday my little heart nearly exploded with excitement at the beginning of a full day dedicated to the saxophone. Yes, that is true, 12 hours of talking, listening and playing saxophone really happened at the Hugo Lambrechts Music Centre in Parrow.
Organised by Karendra Devroop, Matthew Lombard and Liam Burden through UNISA this FREE Saxophone Symposium took place in Durban on 9 April, Pretoria 12 April and Cape Town 14 April.
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| Karendra Devroop opening the symposium. |
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| Karendra Introducing Apollo Saxophone Quartet |
The morning started with a British Apollo Saxophone Quartet. They opened with an avant guard work.
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| Apollo Saxophone Quartet |
This is just a clip of them tuning, lol.
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| Karendra ntroducing Artvark Saxophone Quartet |
Artvark's moto is 'Away with the chairs! Away with music stands! Artvark moves! So as you will see they perform everything from memory, as most jazz musicians do, but they also walk around a bit while playing.
Then about 50 participants joined the quartets in a mass saxophone piece. It was truly exhilarating as we all, from very young to old, beginner and expert played 2 pieces together. I have never in my life felt so…I’m not even sure how to describe it in words, so, happy to be playing with other saxophonists. There was no judgement of anyone in the room. You were all in the same boat.
Victor De Freitas, owner of
Musicraft, and his team were offering free saxophone services and advices throughout the day.
We could choose if we want to go to more jazz or classical focused workshops. For the first sessions I went to the jazz classes, and for the second sessions I went to the classical ones.
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| Artvark giving a jazz workshop. |
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| Mike Rossi giving a workshop on sound production |
There were then a few more performances.
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| Matthew and Liam playing some classical music. |
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| Liam and colleagues from Hugo Lambrechts |
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| Mike Rossi playing a Blues |
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| Karendra playing a solo, supported by Artvark. |
The classical workshop given by
Rob Buckland. Discussing technique and answering our questions. He has written a book called
'Playing the Saxophone', which can be ordered through
Astute. I believe you can also download it through them.
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| Rob Buckland from Apollo Saxophone Quartet |
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| Sans Souci girls. They were taking to long to pose. |
Then, in the evening concert, we were all brought on stage to do our mass piece. It was so much fun. I loved playing with all those people.
What a winner of a day. I am so inspired and encouraged by all the things I learnt and some of which I was also reminded.
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