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ENSEMBLE INFO

Ensemble Contact:

Email:

theroyalsackbutcollective@gmail.com

2024

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

As a recently formed ensemble, all of us at The Royal Sackbut Collective are really happy about the direction and the drive that this chamber group is taking. Earlier this year, we started the process of developing our debut album by completing a three-day-long recording session at Christ Church, Chelsea. The main reason why we are applying for a Continuo Foundation grant is being able to get our first big project ever to the next level.
Our project idea would essentially be organising a live concert featuring the repertoire that we have carefully prepared and recorded, in order to advertise our work and inviting audiences and promoters alike to experience for themselves what the sound of 7 sackbuts together can feel like. The process of choosing the repertoire, rehearsing it and polishing it to get it up to recording standard has been both exciting and musically fulfilling , so we are truly looking forward to sharing our music with all our targeted audience. We are indebted to the Robert Anderson Trust for their support towards hiring a church, a harpsichord and to cover other recording costs, but we are applying to this round of grants as we would love your help to make the next phase of the project possible.

Therefore, with a grant from the Continuo Foundation we would be able to put together an evening that showcased everything that we have carefully curated for our debut album: from music from the Bronze Age to timeless masterpieces of the Renaissance and Baroque era, including repertoire that has never been recorded before such as Marc’ Antonio Ingegneri’s Da Pacem Dominum but also innovative versions of well-known works like Monteverdi’s Zefiro torna as a sackbut duet. On the side, another important use of the financial support would be making physical copies of our album, which we would sell at all our next performances and at specialised hubs like the NCEM or the Egger factory of sackbuts.

The selected venue for the concert is Holy Trinity Church, SK and the suggested date would be 8th November. By performing at this space, we would be targeting a wide range of audiences, from young students from the RCM and IC communities, who could be appealed given our knowledge of marketing strategies that attract that age group, to Early Music enthusiasts who are used to attend central London locations. We consider that a convenient and well-connected concert venue is key to achieve our main goal behind the concert, it being the publicity and spreading of our work within our audiences.

To sum up, our application is directed into being able to fully share our hard work and promoting our recordings as much as possible. Firstly through the launch party of the album, and also via the elaboration of physical CDs and the marketing of it through all the available means of today's world. We are really proud of the outcome of the first step of the project and we cannot waiwait to keep the momentum going and expand our passion for the sackbut.

The Royal Sackbut Collective was founded in 2024 at the heart of the Royal College of Music. Its members are keen and skilled musicians who, although trained as modern trombone players, are fully immersed in the early music rhetoric and style and enjoy the artistic possibilities that the sackbut as a solo and chamber instrument offers. Within a few months of their foundation, we performed for the first time at Regent’s Hall in February 2025, and after a successful application we managed to secure a place as Emerging Artists at the Brighton Early Music Festival 2025-2026. Our main appearance at the festival took place on 18th October and our eclectic and varied programmes, performed both at St. Paul’s Church, Brighton, and at The Rose Hill, were met with really positive feedback, to the point where we have been invited to perform at the next edition of the festival. Aside from that, our collaborations with vocalists have enabled us to perform alongside the Girton College Choir on 23rd November and with vocal soloists in this year’s edition of the Chiswick Brass Festival.

The main rationale behind the creation of the ensemble is expanding the creative horizons of the sackbut. Even within the Early Music scene, we feel that the sackbut remains somewhat unknown for the majority of audiences despite its versatility to adapt to different ensembles, styles and sonorities. Its mellow tone creates truly special performances not just when played in an all-sackbut ensemble, but also when combined with other musicians such as singers or string players. Following the steps of other groups like His Majesty’s Cornetts and Sagbutts, our artistical aim is exploring all the repertoire available for the instrument in all possible combinations, as we think that one of the strengths of the ensemble is its flexibility of instrumentation. As a young group, we are able to approach audiences from many different backgrounds by having an active presence in social media, since another one of the reasons why we decided to create TRSC was promoting the sackbut and its repertoire among young people.

Our background can be traced back to the brass department of the Royal College of Music where we all met as modern trombone players. Some of us have already left the institution and now make a living as freelancers in the orchestral and early music scene whilst some of us are still finishing our postgraduate degrees at the RCM. The unusual number of members (7!) allows us to each use our different connections and abilities to the group’s benefit, particularly regarding funding and performance opportunities.
Our main aspiration is stablishing ourselves as a reliable ensemble that can be part of festivals and concerts, thus getting the chance of sharing our passion for the sackbut around the UK and Europe. We hope to explore all the repertoire that suits our instrument, ranging from smaller chamber pieces to bigger scale projects involving big choirs and greater instrumentations.