Stagecast, the specialist broadcast and recording company which worked alongside World of Brass to bring the recent European Brass Band Championships to multi-media platforms, has gained further recognition for its work — this time with the London Symphony Orchestra.
A feature article in Classical Music magazine looked at their work at the Barbican in London, home to the LSO, where they bring concert performances to a digital audience.
Brass bands to LSO
The company was set up in 2015 by Matt Parkin, a former bandsman and colleague David Rees. Over the Covid-19 pandemic they broadcast over 280 concerts and events and now do around 12 concerts each year with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Speaking with 4BR, Matt said: "As well as enjoying working with World of Brass to stream about half a dozen major band contests/concerts each year on wobplay, we spend a big chunk of our time doing the concerts with LSO, including our most recent one on the Medici.tv platform with Michael Tilson Thomas and violin virtuoso Christian Tetzlaff."
Camera scripting
Stagecast has developed its own cloud-based camera scripting technology to help the director and camera operators get the right shots throughout a performance — something which was used at the recent European Championships in Malmo to correlate between the music on the score and the performers on stage.
The team used at events such as in Malmo is made up of experienced creative and technical people, all familiar with the brass band genre, whilst the state of the art equipment used ensures the best quality pictures and sound are captured working with World of Brass.
Stagecast recently broadcast a performance of John Adams' 'Harmonielehre', a score of amazing complexity, although Matt admitted that some of the scores that were performed at the recent Europeans also offered challenges in their own right.
As well as enjoying working with World of Brass to stream about half a dozen major band contests/concerts each year on wobplay, we spend a big chunk of our time doing the concerts with LSO4BR
Next event
And with a range of new classical music broadcasters opening up, live streaming is very much at the heart of Stagecast's work.
Matt added: "For what it's worth we also do a lot of work with John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir, The Philharmonia, Edinburgh International Festival, The Sixteen etc — but it's always great to get back to banding as it's a big part of my own musical background!
I can't wait for the next big brass band event."
