Euphonium virtuoso Steven Mead has just returned from two highly successful trips to Spain where he was working in collaboration with Spanish Brass, perhaps the leading Brass quintet in Europe.

Incredible

After over a year in planning their new project finally came to fruition with four concerts and a CD recording, featuring some incredible new works for euphonium and brass quintet.

Finding good repertoire for this combination was perhaps the biggest stumbling block and they went ahead and commissioned two major pieces from leading Spanish composers, Juanjo Colomer and Pascual Vilaplana.

In the UK we don’t know a lot about Spanish Brass playing but the standard is incredibly high and the musicians are totally dedicatedSteven Mead

Rock number

In the end they found eight pieces from serious original music to a few classical arrangements including the finale of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto! and even a rock number, ‘Innuendo’ by Queen!

The concert took place in Valencia , Granada and Madrid. One of the Valencia concerts was at the prestigious Palau de Musica in the centre of the city. The CD called “Brass and Wines”, will be released on the Bocchino label at the end of May.

Valencia return

After just two days back in the UK Steve returned to Valencia to take part in the ‘Brassurround’ Festival, hosted by Spanish Brass. Other artists included the Norwegian tuba player Oystein Baadsvik, UK trombone star John Kenny, the Epsilon Brass Quartet from France, and Sound Inn Brass from Austria.

Soloist and conductor

The latter group was conducted in the final gala concert by Steve who also doubled as soloist with the group. During the three day festival Steve also gave masterclasses for 16 of the top young Spanish euphonium players and was deeply moved and impressed by the standard he witnessed.

Steven told 4BR: "In the UK we don’t know a lot about Spanish Brass playing but the standard is incredibly high and the musicians are totally dedicated."