Gareth Cottrell
This arrangement is taken from the Concerto for Alto Trombone by Leopold Mozart (1719-1787) and to preserve the original key, and therefore tonality, has been arranged in its brass band form as a solo for tenor horn. The conceto itself was extracted from the solo movements of a larger piece of music, the Serenata of 1756. This was about the time Leopold withdrew from composition himself to concentrate of his son’s career.
It is commonly thought that the solo movements – the Adagio (arranged here), Menuetto and Allegro – were written for Thomas Gschladt who was highly regarded and acclaimed as a virtuoso in his own time.
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Leopold’s Adagio for Brass – Full Score
Gareth began his musical career at age 12 when Glynn Thomas reformed the Falmouth Town Band. After rising to Principal Cornet in three years Gareth moved to play with the St Stythians Band, initially on solo cornet and then Flugel Horn. After a short stint on solo Baritone, Gareth moved to trombone.
Gareth enjoyed 13 happy years at St Stythians before moving to the mighty Camborne Town Band where he spent six very fruitful years which included gaining two 1st places and two 2nd places at the West of England Area Championships which qualified the band for the National Brass Band Championships at the Royal Albert Hall. He also performed in six performances at the West of England Bandsman’s Festival at Bugle, each time winning the Royal Trophy.
After taking a short break from banding, he returned to his roots, (Falmouth Town Band had by this time been renamed Pendennis Brass) to become that band’s Musical Director but after 18 months he decided to return to playing and joined the Lanner & District Silver Band where he spent eight years and is delighted to have played Principal Trombone in the three performances that saw Lanner regain Championship Section status.