Appreciation by David Fisher

Kevin Morgan’s talk “Not Brassed Off with the life and music of the BSO” lived up to its billing in that we experienced vicariously his enjoyment of playing, his love of music and orchestral life through some revelatory detail. As such, then, it was a splendid fact-filled talk in a relaxed and genial presentation with excellent illustrative recordings and lots of inside knowledge of how an orchestra works.

We were also treated to some astonishing facts about the many conductors with whom he has worked. In fact it was in his many anecdotes that we gained an extraordinary insight into the professional life of an orchestral musician. We were able to follow his career up to and including his thirty plus years as Principal Trombone of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and learned many interesting details about the history of the trombone from the sackbut, its development in terms of bore and shape, the different sized trombones and their uses, its early importance in choral music and its use in a variety of orchestral pieces and genres. His recordings allowed us to understand the development of the instrument and the sackbut playing we heard was outstanding.

It was quite clear that, as with many of our speakers, he took great care in the planning and preparation and his knowledge was such that he answered interesting questions from the floor with clarity and humour. Kevin gave us some remarkable tenor trombone practical demonstrations which helped to explain the instrument to those who probably hadn’t heard the instrument at such close quarters. In my introduction I made it quite clear how, as his teacher from 14-18, I am proud of his career and my small part in it. That pride, even after the intervening years, was reinforced during this enjoyable evening.