Gordon Cherry has been running Cherry Classics for over 20 years. He is a leading professional Trombonist in North America, having performed as Principal Trombonist of the Vancouver Symphony, and the CBC Radio Orchestra. As well, Gordon has taught hundreds of Brass students for over 30 years at the University of British Columbia and many international leading music festivals.Details
Niels-Ole Bo Johansen has recently discovered a hidden treasure of relatively unknown and forgotten works of Danish origin for the Trombone from the early 20th Century. This series of music will be subtitled The Danish Trombone Heritage and will be published by Cherry Classics over the next while. Below is Niels' description of Romance, Op. 13 by Joachim Bruun de Neergaard composed in 1915.
Anton Hansen's (father of the Danish School for Trombone) first meeting with Joachim Bruun de Neergaard (1877-1929) was rather a disastrous one. Hansen an extraordinary Trombonist, also a very fine pianist, was hired to play at a dinner dance at Skjoldnæsholm manor. A young man insisted on playing along with the tunes Hansen performed - on a terribly out -of-tune ocarina. Hansen writes in his memoirs that his first thought was that the young man was a bit strange. As it turned out, he was the son of the family living in the manor, which made the situation even more awkward. That young man, Joachim Bruun de Neergaard was not the slightest bit strange. He was on the contrary highly intelligent and managed, in addition to his composition studies, to attain a degree in law with the highest honors.
The Romance for Trombone and Orchestra, here in the version for Trombone and Piano, reveals a composer with a very fine sense of the trombone’s singing qualities.
This work is perfect for advanced intermediate performers and is almost 7 minutes in length.
Trombone soloist Johansen and his collaborator, Pianist Erik Kaltoft beautiifully perform Romance on their 2018 album The French Connection. Below is a sample of the work (available on Apple Music and as a CD).