I came here 22 years ago to the RNC mmm
as a student and I came here with the
sole intention of becoming a horn player
that’s all I had wanted to do since
about the age of 14 it’s all I could do
it’s what I needed to do and there was
not one question no doubt in my mind
that that is what I was going to do and
I did it it wasn’t straightforward you
know they were failings disasters
humiliations along the way but I did it
I left college I freelance for a while
and then I achieved that holy grail of
orchestral ambition and I got a job I
got a job in the Hal a here in
Manchester and I loved it
I loved every single minute of it and I
would have stayed there forever had it
not been for one of my character flaws
and that is that I have to say yes
because yes always leads to the unknown
to wonder and to adventure you never
know where yes we’ll take you it’s not
always good it’s not always a happy
ending but it’s always interesting so
all the while I was playing I was being
asked to do other things you want to
teach yeah I mean that was obvious I
love teaching I’d always wanted to that
made sense do you want to do some
education work yes so on my days off in
the orchestra I’d find myself sitting on
the floor with 36 7 year-olds banging
out rhythms on our laps changing the
dynamic of a class sometimes changing
the dynamic of a community sometimes
just creating for the sake of creativity
and each time realizing that that was
changing lives now from that I was asked
to do more I was asked to present a
concert you want to do that yeah it was
a school’s concert and it just kept
growing from there a school’s concert
led to a family concert led to a Pops
concert for adults and eventually
leading to working as a broadcaster
hosting live concerts on the radio now I
never meant any of that to happen
it was all an accident of saying yes I
was a home play this other stuff just
seemed to take place it just kind of
snowballed but what I realized is
increasingly that side of my work was as
important as that thing that coiled up
piece of metal and that was a shock
because my heart had always been a horn
player and ultimately I’d reached a
point where I couldn’t carry on doing
both lots of work I was going to burn
out I didn’t have the space the time to
do everything the way I wanted to I was
doing it well but it wasn’t right so I
had to step back
I had to assess I had to work out what
to do so the Hammond couldn’t have been
more supportive they gave me a
sabbatical I took 12 months to go and
think about things work out what I was
going to do in these other directions
now with the theme of their unknown of
stepping into the unknown did you know
this would be the obvious point to talk
about these other career paths but they
weren’t unknown they were organic they
were just constantly in motion and I’d
been doing them for quite a long time
when I reached this point the unknown
the most difficult thing I had to do was
to stop playing the horn that thing has
been my companion since I was nine years
old for three-quarters of my life I have
played that instrument and worn it like
a badge Tom the horn player and I wore
that band with pride I love that
association now any instrumentalists
will say that their instrument is a
looking glass into their soul and it is
it is a vehicle for expression to put
into sound what you cannot say with
words because that’s what music is and I
still love doing it you know in the horn
is such a powerful such an intimate
instrument you know you hold it like
this your hand inside you feel the
warmth of the air the vibration of the
notes the resonance in your chest you
hold this thing against your lips for
six hours every day and I had to stop I
had to step away because I simply didn’t
have the time to do this other work as
effectively as creatively as I wanted it
was the most difficult thing the most
liberating and the most revelatory thing
I’ve done in this whole extraordinary
journey liberating because though I am
proud to be defined by that instrument
there is a negative that goes with it as
well because as a musician you know when
we make a mistake on our instrument we
think that reflects on us you know as a
horn player you know we split notes and
you go home with that burning inside
that self-loathing the hatred the shame
that comes with that mistake and I
hadn’t realized how heavily that’s set
upon me so to walk away from those
feelings that was liberating the
revelation came when I realized how to
listen which sounds odd you know I had
worked in a profession for 15 years
where listening is such a key part of it
but I was going to present concerts on
the radio where orchestras were
performing music that I had played 20 30
40 times and yet I had never really
heard I knew how it went I knew how it
worked
music had always moved me but I had
never passively consumed it I was always
actively involved in the performance the
creation of it and I was amazed at how
much it moved me and I was increasingly
aware of the effect it had on other
people as well more than I had allowed
myself to realize before I also started
to be aware of those incredible skills
that we as musicians have musicians that
we don’t always think about that work on
the subconscious those skills that allow
us to perform things like rhythm and
pulse listening and adjusting skills
that everyone else in the world looks
upon with awe and envy I work with
business leaders who are fascinated by
the functionality of the orchestra the
way we work as a team the layers of
leadership that go in to performance and
we have these skills in abundance but
they operate just so far below the radar
we don’t always know them now at the end
of this sort of detachment I realized I
had to play I needed it I needed those
feelings positive and negative because
they are inside me they are Who I am but
I couldn’t go back to being in the
orchestra all the time I had to leave
and I now sort of broadly speaking can
buy my time playing and teaching
creating and presenting but what evenly
balanced but the thing that binds all of
that
together is a need to communicate more
effectively more efficiently what music
is and how we can let it change us if we
allow it now a few years ago my eldest
brother Ian who is a hugely respected
conservationist gave a TED talk on his
two passions gorillas and elephants it
was called the Gardeners of the forest
elephants are interesting you know they
spend their entire time eating and
everywhere they go to eat they create
furrows in the ground they dig up the
ground with their feet their trunks
their tusks and you know they have a
diet rich in roughage they poop they poo
a lot great big grow bags of poo rich
fertile poo full of seeds so everywhere
an elephant goes it creates life it
creates life in its own ecosystem
preserving the place it lives and we as
musicians could learn from that you know
there are many parallels between my
Lanier’s careers he works with
endangered species that are critically
endangered mine musicians more cause for
concern but that idea of planting seeds
everywhere we go is vital to our own
ecosystem our own environment that we
should be able to create seeds of wonder
of curiosity of possibility of ambition
in everything that we do but how do that
well obviously first we have to perform
we have to play because that’s what
music is best you know and we have to
never lose sight as a musician how much
that can affect people I always consider
myself a fairly unblinking musician but
it turned out I wasn’t I had lost sight
of the life-changing possibilities of
music simply to hear it
but the other thing that we can do
because performers is to draw on those
key skills those core skills that we
have inside us of pulse and rhythm to
bring people together to change people
because music can I mean take something
as simple as a pulse you know if I just
had a pulse like this on the floor
and all of you felt that pulse as well
and you were suddenly compelled to stand
up you were compelled to stand up
and you felt that pulse just on the
floor like that it’s there isn’t it it’s
inside us
what makes us human we all have a pulse
there’s the pulse
now if we took that pulse we’ll get out
of rhythm simple rhythm your own name so
just with two fingers on your hand tap
meet the rhythm of your name mine is
simple it’s just Tom red red your name
your rhythm go get loud whole hands
[Applause]
carry on to fingers pulse
now take that rhythm this time use your
whole bodies use the floor use your legs
use your chest use your hand get that
rhythm through your bodies and go
[Applause]
good pulse now vocalize them use your
voices any sound that rhythm bah bah bah
bah stop body percussion this side carry
on this side vocalize
[Applause]
when I say switch switch pulse stop
thank you very much
[Music]
you
as a student and I came here with the
sole intention of becoming a horn player
that’s all I had wanted to do since
about the age of 14 it’s all I could do
it’s what I needed to do and there was
not one question no doubt in my mind
that that is what I was going to do and
I did it it wasn’t straightforward you
know they were failings disasters
humiliations along the way but I did it
I left college I freelance for a while
and then I achieved that holy grail of
orchestral ambition and I got a job I
got a job in the Hal a here in
Manchester and I loved it
I loved every single minute of it and I
would have stayed there forever had it
not been for one of my character flaws
and that is that I have to say yes
because yes always leads to the unknown
to wonder and to adventure you never
know where yes we’ll take you it’s not
always good it’s not always a happy
ending but it’s always interesting so
all the while I was playing I was being
asked to do other things you want to
teach yeah I mean that was obvious I
love teaching I’d always wanted to that
made sense do you want to do some
education work yes so on my days off in
the orchestra I’d find myself sitting on
the floor with 36 7 year-olds banging
out rhythms on our laps changing the
dynamic of a class sometimes changing
the dynamic of a community sometimes
just creating for the sake of creativity
and each time realizing that that was
changing lives now from that I was asked
to do more I was asked to present a
concert you want to do that yeah it was
a school’s concert and it just kept
growing from there a school’s concert
led to a family concert led to a Pops
concert for adults and eventually
leading to working as a broadcaster
hosting live concerts on the radio now I
never meant any of that to happen
it was all an accident of saying yes I
was a home play this other stuff just
seemed to take place it just kind of
snowballed but what I realized is
increasingly that side of my work was as
important as that thing that coiled up
piece of metal and that was a shock
because my heart had always been a horn
player and ultimately I’d reached a
point where I couldn’t carry on doing
both lots of work I was going to burn
out I didn’t have the space the time to
do everything the way I wanted to I was
doing it well but it wasn’t right so I
had to step back
I had to assess I had to work out what
to do so the Hammond couldn’t have been
more supportive they gave me a
sabbatical I took 12 months to go and
think about things work out what I was
going to do in these other directions
now with the theme of their unknown of
stepping into the unknown did you know
this would be the obvious point to talk
about these other career paths but they
weren’t unknown they were organic they
were just constantly in motion and I’d
been doing them for quite a long time
when I reached this point the unknown
the most difficult thing I had to do was
to stop playing the horn that thing has
been my companion since I was nine years
old for three-quarters of my life I have
played that instrument and worn it like
a badge Tom the horn player and I wore
that band with pride I love that
association now any instrumentalists
will say that their instrument is a
looking glass into their soul and it is
it is a vehicle for expression to put
into sound what you cannot say with
words because that’s what music is and I
still love doing it you know in the horn
is such a powerful such an intimate
instrument you know you hold it like
this your hand inside you feel the
warmth of the air the vibration of the
notes the resonance in your chest you
hold this thing against your lips for
six hours every day and I had to stop I
had to step away because I simply didn’t
have the time to do this other work as
effectively as creatively as I wanted it
was the most difficult thing the most
liberating and the most revelatory thing
I’ve done in this whole extraordinary
journey liberating because though I am
proud to be defined by that instrument
there is a negative that goes with it as
well because as a musician you know when
we make a mistake on our instrument we
think that reflects on us you know as a
horn player you know we split notes and
you go home with that burning inside
that self-loathing the hatred the shame
that comes with that mistake and I
hadn’t realized how heavily that’s set
upon me so to walk away from those
feelings that was liberating the
revelation came when I realized how to
listen which sounds odd you know I had
worked in a profession for 15 years
where listening is such a key part of it
but I was going to present concerts on
the radio where orchestras were
performing music that I had played 20 30
40 times and yet I had never really
heard I knew how it went I knew how it
worked
music had always moved me but I had
never passively consumed it I was always
actively involved in the performance the
creation of it and I was amazed at how
much it moved me and I was increasingly
aware of the effect it had on other
people as well more than I had allowed
myself to realize before I also started
to be aware of those incredible skills
that we as musicians have musicians that
we don’t always think about that work on
the subconscious those skills that allow
us to perform things like rhythm and
pulse listening and adjusting skills
that everyone else in the world looks
upon with awe and envy I work with
business leaders who are fascinated by
the functionality of the orchestra the
way we work as a team the layers of
leadership that go in to performance and
we have these skills in abundance but
they operate just so far below the radar
we don’t always know them now at the end
of this sort of detachment I realized I
had to play I needed it I needed those
feelings positive and negative because
they are inside me they are Who I am but
I couldn’t go back to being in the
orchestra all the time I had to leave
and I now sort of broadly speaking can
buy my time playing and teaching
creating and presenting but what evenly
balanced but the thing that binds all of
that
together is a need to communicate more
effectively more efficiently what music
is and how we can let it change us if we
allow it now a few years ago my eldest
brother Ian who is a hugely respected
conservationist gave a TED talk on his
two passions gorillas and elephants it
was called the Gardeners of the forest
elephants are interesting you know they
spend their entire time eating and
everywhere they go to eat they create
furrows in the ground they dig up the
ground with their feet their trunks
their tusks and you know they have a
diet rich in roughage they poop they poo
a lot great big grow bags of poo rich
fertile poo full of seeds so everywhere
an elephant goes it creates life it
creates life in its own ecosystem
preserving the place it lives and we as
musicians could learn from that you know
there are many parallels between my
Lanier’s careers he works with
endangered species that are critically
endangered mine musicians more cause for
concern but that idea of planting seeds
everywhere we go is vital to our own
ecosystem our own environment that we
should be able to create seeds of wonder
of curiosity of possibility of ambition
in everything that we do but how do that
well obviously first we have to perform
we have to play because that’s what
music is best you know and we have to
never lose sight as a musician how much
that can affect people I always consider
myself a fairly unblinking musician but
it turned out I wasn’t I had lost sight
of the life-changing possibilities of
music simply to hear it
but the other thing that we can do
because performers is to draw on those
key skills those core skills that we
have inside us of pulse and rhythm to
bring people together to change people
because music can I mean take something
as simple as a pulse you know if I just
had a pulse like this on the floor
and all of you felt that pulse as well
and you were suddenly compelled to stand
up you were compelled to stand up
and you felt that pulse just on the
floor like that it’s there isn’t it it’s
inside us
what makes us human we all have a pulse
there’s the pulse
now if we took that pulse we’ll get out
of rhythm simple rhythm your own name so
just with two fingers on your hand tap
meet the rhythm of your name mine is
simple it’s just Tom red red your name
your rhythm go get loud whole hands
[Applause]
carry on to fingers pulse
now take that rhythm this time use your
whole bodies use the floor use your legs
use your chest use your hand get that
rhythm through your bodies and go
[Applause]
good pulse now vocalize them use your
voices any sound that rhythm bah bah bah
bah stop body percussion this side carry
on this side vocalize
[Applause]
when I say switch switch pulse stop
thank you very much
[Music]
you
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