Composer - Wilfred Heaton
It is with great sadness that I learned of the passing of Wilfred Heaton. His influence on original and imaginative music for brass is well-documented. However, for me the loss of such a creative giant has a profound personal impact, not just because of the close communication we had during the preparation of his Concerto for Trombone (which he never heard performed live other than in rehearsal) but because of the aura which surrounded his life during my formative years with the Salvation Army in Sheffield.Although he had moved from the area before I went to Sheffield as a child, stories of his highly individual approach to Salvation Army music were still being told with a tremendous amount of local pride. I attended my first ever band rehearsal as a 'learner' in the very band room where he introduced the initial manuscript of his march, Praise.
More significantly, I remember the story of the occasion when he waited outside the entrance door at Sheffield Citadel. Drawn to the end of a special weekend visit by the International Staff Band, he had travelled from his Corps at Sheffield Park on the Sunday evening to enjoy the traditional concert following the evening service. Arriving as the congregation were still at prayer he stood respectfully out side and heard the ISB male chorus singing the hymn, Just as I Am. It was here that Wilfred Heaton was inspired to write his arrangement of that tune, and the image of this humble genius waiting to be allowed in, remains with me whenever I play the trombone chorale from his moving composition.
Our work together on his Concerto for Trombone was the most intensive and concentrated that I have experienced as a soloist. Despite Wilfred Heaton's views on keeping emotion in music firmly in its place, the one-take live recording that was made with Howard Snell and Britannia in concert at the BBC left me more mentally and physically drained than anything else in my career to date. Through what was a milestone performance for me, I was honoured and proud to be the interpreter of one of bandings' most advanced and original non-compromising craftsmen. His contribution to our art will be sorely missed.
Nick Hudson