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On Tuesday 2nd April 2024, our composer Callum Hüseyin came along to our rehearsal to meet the band for the first time. Here's what our musical director Sarah had to say!

We played through some of the repertoire from our recent concert.  Despite limited percussion the band gave a flavour of what they can do.  Callum immediately got stuck in with tuned and auxiliary percussion parts like he was part of the band.

After 45 minutes of playing, we built in some time for a bit of chat with Callum.  We gathered some ideas and information amongst the sections about music likes/dislikes and the band in general that Callum could take away. All band members also got the opportunity to chat directly with Callum. There was a real buzz around the room. Lots of active conversations certainly gave Callum plenty to think about. 

We finished the rehearsal with Callum at the helm putting the band through their paces with the opening section of El Camino Real. It was great to see him in action and how the band responded to him.

It was hardly 24 hours before I received an email from Callum:

"Thank you again for inviting me to rehearsal last night. I enjoyed myself a lot. I look forward to sharing some material with you very soon."

A very successful first meeting with the band and lots of excitement of what's to come over the term ahead.  We look forward to our next rehearsal together and seeing some of his ideas.

Introducing our composer...Callum Hüseyin!

Callum Hüseyin is a composer and conductor based in Edinburgh and we are excited to be working with him on our composition project! 

Callum’s previous projects include composing for chamber musicians from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and producing soundtracks for film and media. This new project with the Edinburgh Concert Band is his first commission for a large wind ensemble. You can learn more about Callum and his upcoming concerts by visiting his website at www.callumhuseyin.com

Earlier this year, Edinburgh Concert Band received a very kind, anonymous donation of money to go towards having a piece of music written specially for us. We were thrilled to take on this exciting project and incredibly grateful to our donor - if you are reading this, thank you very much!

We received responses from a large number of composers who were interested in working with the band. Selecting a composer from this talented group was extremely challenging, but we really enjoyed researching and listening to all the compositions. After narrowing down a shortlist and meeting with two of the composers in person we finally selected our composer. Stay tuned for our next blog where we will introduce them!