Roger Argente (Bass Trombone) Interview
By Matthew Knight (Co-Principal Trombone)
This month we say goodbye to a true titan of our brass section, our inimitable bass trombonist of 26 years, Roger Argente. Roger joined the RPO in 1992 and has been a formidable force in the orchestra ever since. One of the RPO’s biggest characters, he is also a fixture of the busy London session scene, and has recorded hundreds of soundtracks for film and TV.
by Emer McDonough (Principal Flute)
Since hearing last year that we were performing the complete Daphnis et Chloé at the BBC Proms, thoughts of it have never been far from my mind. A mixture of excitement and anxiety had been murmuring in my subconscious all this time.
by Richard Harwood (Principal Cello)
The RPO recently presented the Pinchas Zukerman Summer Music Festival at Cadogan Hall. It brought back a lot of happy memories from January's US tour, which began with ten days of touring the east coast with Pinchas (with me as a Guest Principal), and led to me being offered the Principal appointment by the end of the second part of the tour in San Francisco.
by Patrick Flanaghan (Principal Cor Anglais)
May has probably been my craziest month since joining the orchestra in August 2016 because I played Cor Anglais for half the time and had the dubious pleasure of covering Principal Oboe for the other half.
Playing Cor, the month began with our Symphonic Rock concert at the Royal Albert Hall – a staple in the RPO’s schedule, good fun and always a full house. During the interval I met some of our “Young Professionals” club members. Meeting sponsors is an important part of our job and it’s particularly interesting meeting similar aged people from different fields and answering their large array of questions on the life of a musician.