Lunchtime Music: Carmichael, Debussy, Joplin, Brahms

Broken Bones Brass Ensemble
Ollie Plant, Katie Blackburn, Ed Simons trombone 
Archie McVicar tuba

Carmichael (arr. Ingo Luis) Georgia On My Mind
Dvořák (arr. Ollie Plant) Song to the Moon
Debussy (arr. Michael Levin) Trois chansons
Joplin (arr. Ed Simons) Good Advice from Treemonisha
Delibes (arr. Ollie Plant) Mazurka from Coppelius

Shuyi Danneil violin
Carlos Alfonso Ferri piano

Brahms Sonata No.3 for Violin and Piano in D minor

Broken Bones are a low brass quartet based in the West Midlands. The group was formed as students of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, with members having performed at venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Glyndebourne Opera House and Symphony Hall. They usually line-up with three trombones and tuba, however their versatility as multi-instrumentalists has seen them incorporate euphonium, a second tuba, as well as alto and bass trombones. They perform a wide variety of pieces from opera classics to contemporary works and they are committed to expanding the low brass repertoire by regularly commissioning new music for this ensemble as well as arranging new works themselves.

Broken Bones won the Bernard Brown Brass Ensemble Prize in 2020 and were featured at the online Phillip Jones Brass Spectacular with The Musicians' Company and Ursula Jones in July 2020. Having played in concert halls across the country, the group are also passionate about bringing live chamber music to audiences across the West Midlands by regularly performing in local venues.

The group are now working towards releasing their first CD in April 2023 made up of opera and ballet works.

Shuyi Danneil started having violin lessons at the age of four. From 2011 she studied with Tianwa Yang and was a preliminary student at the Music Academy Kassel. Shuyi won first and second prizes at the German competition “Jugend Musiziert“ and had multiple scholarships from the Riemschneider Stiftung. In 2018 she went on a concert tour to Namibia with her High School orchestra where she was the concertmaster and soloist of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto.

In 2019 Shuyi studied for a semester at the China Conservatory of Music with Prof Wenzhou Li as a scholarship holder. Since 2020 Shuyi has been a student of Nathaniel Vallois and Oliver Wille at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.