Work
Concerto for Euphonium and Orchestra
for solo euphonium and full orchestra
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About
During my teenage years I was a member of the National Youth Brass Band. One of the long-standing friendships I have maintained since then is with Riki McDonnell who is New Zealand’s most successful soloist in the brass band movement. He has also played many different instruments during the years, but in recent times has settled firmly on the euphonium; an instrument I used to play myself and which is certainly my favourite brass instrument.
Riki would occasionally join me in the ranks of the NZSO performing the tenor tuba parts of works such as Holst’s The Planets and Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben. The first work I wrote for him was a short piece for eupho and piano, Reverie. However, I’d always harboured a desire to write a full concerto with orchestra.
Riki was aware of this and so when he was invited to perform at a Tuba and Euphonium Symposium in Budapest in 2004 he commissioned me to write him a concerto for the occasion. It is in four movements, unashamedly lyrical and a work with which I am both fond and proud of.
Notes by Kenneth Young.
Dedication note
for Riki McDonnell
Performance history
Concerto for Euphonium and Orchestra by Kenneth Young was performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and conducted by the composer, at the Michael Fowler Center, in Wellington.