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National Saxophone Choir in distinguished company!

Sunday 21st June saw the NSC in titled company when patron Lord Robert Winston joined players at the opening weekend of Sir John Dankworth and Dame Cleo Laine's 2009 Music in the Garden season at Wavendon. He played a stunning star role as narrator in Mike Brogan's vivid arrangement of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, raising goosebumps with the drama of his delivery even in the idyllic summer sun. When the spotlight turned to the hot soloing of John Dankworth and Alan Barnes in Karen Street's Carnival , Lord Robert was happy to dust down his sax and join the troops in the back row, re-living his appearance with the Choir in BBC 1's Play It Again. Clearly relishing the company, the Choir gave one of its best and happiest performances to the families gathered in the Dankworths' pavilion. Much of its programme, in a variety of formats, is available from Saxtet Publications: Mrs Malcolm, Her Reel; Largo al Factotum; Duende; Under the Veil; Nimrod; Carnival; Bolero; Shetland Sequence. This is scarcely the start of the summer for the Choir, which now turns its attention overseas, with performances booked for early July at the World Saxophone Congress in Bangkok, and for August at Klassiek op Locatie in the Netherlands.

Michael Brogan
17 July 2009

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