A Concert of Multi-instrumental Recital & Chamber Music, presented on the Saxophone, Piano, Viola & Tubular Bells
BC 365 (Black Culture 365) is an initiative by London's Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance to celebrate artistic contributions by Black people 365 days per annum, rather than just during Black History Month, each October.  The programme involves six concerts per year, of which mine was the final one for 2021-22.   You can read all about this thoughtful enterprise here.  This concert's past event page is here.
​There is a particular relevance to this project for Trinity Laban, which is based in the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich.  ​As a major disembarkation point for ships, the area had slave connections. The composer and writer Ignatius Sancho - for example - worked as a slave for the Dukes of Montagu in Blackheath, prior to his manumission. 

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​The image above is of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a bi-racial Francophone composer of part-slave ancestry, whose Sonata for Harp and obbligato Flute has been reworked for solo instrument & piano, and made its British debut in this concert. 
Ashley Brand
Lily Skinner
Performed by
Stephanie Barker, Ashley Brand,
​Natacha Hansen, Lily Skinner
& Louis Suc, Saxophones
Ivan Illingworth, Viola
Ben Quilter, Tubular Bells
with Daniel King Smith, Piano

​​Led by
 Professor Melanie Henry
Daniel & Natacha rehearse Troparion
The Klosely Kvartet - Natacha, Steph, Lily & Louis
Multi-instrumental Scores
Although this concert was presented by the Saxophone Department, all scores are multi-instrumental for Woodwind and String instruments including the Oboe, Clarinet, Flute, Recorder, Violin & Cello.  Some Bassoon & Viola scores are also available.
Multi-instrumental scores and parts are available for Trinity Laban students in The Jerwood Library of the Performing Arts.  Otherwise, they can be purchased via this site. 
Based in London, England, international prizewinning musician Althea Talbot-Howard is a classical composer who began her professional career in 1992 as a soloist and orchestral guest principal. In 2005, Gramophone Magazine called her “a superb oboist”.  A graduate of Girton College, Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music; she won Third Prize in the Paris-Ville d'Avray International Oboe Competition in 2007; and was one of twelve equal prizewinners in the Ora Singers Christmas Gift Composition Competition in 2019. 
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Of Afro-British ancestry, she is a 12th-generation direct descendant of King Charles II, who formalized Britain’s involvement in the Atlantic slave trade; and therefore a 14th-generation descendant of King James I & VI, who commissioned the Authorized Version of the Bible.  Both anti-slavery and Christian themes feature strongly in her compositional output.