In a special additional concert for the 2019-20 season, we are delighted to welcome saxophonist Manu Brazo, accompanied by a string quartet consisting of Claudia Gallardo (violin), Robyn Bell (violin), Alberto Garcia (viola) and Carolina Bartumenu (cello). This group will be recording Manu's first album in Milan just three days after this concert. If you'd like to make a contribution to help Manu and the quartet with this recording, there will be a collection after the Oxshott and Cobham Music Society concert.
Manu Brazo was born in Utrera, Spain in 1993. He studied in Seville at the Conservatorio Superior de Musica Manuel Castillo with Juan Jimenez before coming to London to the Royal College of Music where he is a Sir Roger and Lady Carr Soiree d’Or Scholar.
Manu has recently performed with pianist Bryan Evans MBE as the opening act for Sir Cliff Richard at Greenwich Music Time festival in front of more than 7500 people. Manu also opened at the Official Downton Abbey Live Concert at the Highclere Castle for more than 4000 people. He was selected as one of the Making Music’s Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artists and in 2018 was appointed as a BBC Introducing Artist with a performance on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune. He has performed as a soloist at the Royal Opera House, Victoria and Albert Museum, St Martin in the Fields, King’s Place, Newbury Spring Festival, Teatro de la Maestranza (Seville), St James’ Piccadilly,London Saxophone Festival, the Royal Academy of Arts, Alderney Festival, as well as at the Kammermussikkfest in Risor, Norway and the Aegean Arts Festival in Crete. Forthcoming dates include performances at the Royal Albert Hall, St Martin in the Fields and at the Leeds International Concert Season among others.
Manu made his concerto debut in the UK with the Guildford Symphony Orchestra in 2016 playing the Glazunov Saxophone Concerto and the following year he performed Tansy Davies’s Saxophone Concerto with the London Sinfonietta. He has also played with the London City Orchestra, RCM Philharmonic, Orquesta Betica de Camara and Orquesta Fillarmonia.
In 2016 Manu won the Concerto Competition at the Conservatorio Superior de Musica Manuel Castillo of Seville. The following year he was awarded the Jane Melber prize at the Royal College of Music as well as the Guildford Symphony Orchestra Jellinek Award for young soloists. He was also invited to join the London Sinfonietta Academy and to collaborate with the Youth Musician Symphony Orchestra.
Manu was selected to take part in the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme for 2018 which saw him perform at the Snape Maltings Proms conducted by Marin Alsop. Recently he has been chosen for the Tillet Trust Young Artist Programme for 2018/19.