Kansas comes to London

I am extremely excited to have checked the Lovely Lunchtime Lutherans' website this morning and found this:

Friday 28 November: The Kansas State University Trumpet Ensemble Lindsay Bennett, Alex Cook, Alan Martens, Paul Mueller, Samuel Mustain, Rebecca Ronen,Eric Starnes, Brian Stuckenschmidt, Brian Williams trumpets. Coordinator: Gary Mortenson Stanhope: The Australian Fanfare; Altenburg: Concerto for Trumpets; Viitasaari: Aba-Zulu; Basler: The Ascension; Trad. Arr. James Olcott: Shenandoah; J S Bach: Fugue in G minor (The Little); Morales: Infinite Ascent

Between you, me and the gatepost, I have been not entirely uninvolved with the effort to bring the KSU ensemble over. That is not to claim I made it happen or anything on that scale: good Heavens no, they'd still very much be here without me weebling on. But I have been tangentially involved in one or two things and the St Anne's gig is, to some extent at least, the result of me running my mouth off at various fabulously influential top people (you know who you are). I am very, very, very much looking forward to this visit. The ensemble are great, Gary is one of my favourite people on the planet, and he's bringing his lovely family too. I met many of the trumpet ensemble last year in Paris - I think this year's group is around 50% the same people and if Paris was anything to go by they will be a delightful group and it will be musically excellent. The icing on the cake is that Ibrahim Maalouf is also coming over for one day - the one, I think, that they will be spending at Camden School for Girls. Ibrahim is not only a thoroughly Decent Sort and Good Egg but can also Play The Trumpet More Than Somewhat and it will be 101% excellent to see and hear him again.

To summarize: seeing the KSU Trumpet Ensemble "in print", as it were, on the St Anne's website has rendered me into a quite marked state of happiness. It's seriously, seriously good.

If you are in or have access to London do come along to the St Anne's gig. It's at 1.10 on Friday 28th November, it's over by 2.00; it serves coffee and biccies, and you can bring your lunch - what could be nicer?

Onwards and upwards!