Newbury Spring Festival

Last week saw Bella Tromba perform at The Corn Exchange in Newbury as part of the annual Newbury Spring Festival. This is a fantastic festival with a really varied programme, other artists performing there this year included Guitarist John Williams, English Chamber Orchestra, Grimethorpe Colliery Band, Fine Arts Brass and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
As well as being a great Festival, Newbury is my home town so it was a lovely gig for me and there were lots of familiar faces in the audience and even a class of children from my old Primary School Falkland.
We chose a really varied programme including works by Bach, Elgar and Mendlessohn and finished off with the Carnival of Venice arranged by Torbjorn Hultmark. This is a fantastic and challenging arrangement which always makes me feel slightly nervous, especially on this occasion when my old trumpet teacher Andy Smets of the Berkshire Maestros was in the audience. Luckily all went without a hitch and the audience seemed to really be enjoying themselves. We couldn’t have asked for a warmer reception.