Wednesday 3 August 2022

The youngest ever winner of BBC Young Musician in 2008, Peter Moore becomes the first trombone soloist at the BBC Proms for nearly 20 years with George Walker's concerto

Peter Moore (Photo Benjamin Ealovega)
Peter Moore (Photo Benjamin Ealovega)

Trombonist Peter Moore is all of 26. In 2008 at the age of twelve, he became the youngest ever winner of the BBC Young Musician competition and is now principal trombone of the London Symphony Orchestra and professor of trombone at the Royal Academy of Music.

On Tuesday 16th August 2022, Moore makes his BBC Proms solo debut when he performs George Walker's Trombone Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Vasily Petrenko, as part a programme including works by Prokofiev and Copland. Amazingly, this is the first time there has been a trombone soloist at the proms in almost 20 years.

George Walker (1922-2018) was the first Black composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1996. He studied at the Curtis Institute with Rudolf Serkin, William Primrose, Gregor Piatigorsky and Rosario Scalero (Samuel Barber's teacher). His Trombone Concerto was written in 1957 and is one of the earliest modern trombone concertos with Walker's music reflecting a range of influences from Beethoven to jazz. Walker's concerto was preceded by a jazz-inflected on by Nathaniel Shilkret which was written for band leader Tommy Dorsey in 1942. Following on from Walker's concert came that by Nino Rota (1966), those by Xenakis (1991), Berio (1999), and Mark-Anthony Turnage (1999-2000) all dedicated to Christian Lindberg, James MacMillan (2001), and more recently Dani Howard (commissioned for Moore in 2021).

The last time the trombone was featured at the BBC Proms was in 2003 with the Symphony No. 9 for trombone and orchestra by Finnish composer Kalevi Aho, again for trombonist Christian Lindberg and memorably featuring trombone, sackbut (early trombone) and free jazz solos.

In the Autumn, Moore will be soloist with his home orchestra as he performs Toru Takemitsu's Fantasma Cantos II with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle in London and on tour to Japan. Later in October Moore will also be debuting a new chamber music series with mezzo-soprano Anna Huntley and pianist Michael McHale, performing arrangements of works by Frank Bridge, Schumann, Schubert, and selections from the Great American Songbook in Belfast, the city where Peter was born.

Further details from BBC Proms website, and LSO website,

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