Ignatius Sancho, Amanda Ira Aldridge and Callum Au are amongst composers featured in landmark new ABRSM repertoire books celebrating diversity in brass music through an original series of graded pieces.
Each piece in the two Brass Mix books is written, or arranged by, a composer from an underrepresented background or drawn from an indigenous music culture. All can be played on any brass instrument and can be learned in mixed instrument groups.
Brass Mix Book One covers Grades 1-3 and includes Chris Smith's Barnyard Rag and Ethel Smyth's The March of the Women amongst 12 arrangements of works by a diverse range of composers, arranged for brass by Lucy Pankhurst and John Frith.
Book Two, which covers Grades 4 & 5, includes eight newly commissioned pieces, with works by composers from under-represented groups including Shri Sriram, Andrea Price and Christopher Augustine. Fifteen of the pieces, including Cumbianita para Ti, a piece inspired by Cumbia, the national rhythm of Columbia by Shanti Jayasinha, appear on lists from ABRSM's recently launched 2023 Brass syllabus.
Between them the two books include:
- one piece at each grade and list of the ABRSM 2023 Brass syllabus, for all instruments
- distinctive and engaging repertoire from which to build a programme for a Practical or Performance Grade exam
- accompaniments for a pianist or a second brass player
- a single student book that can be used by treble and bass-clef brass including Eb Tuba
- separate Bb, Eb and F piano accompaniment books
- a downloadable part for Bb Tuba in bass-clef
ABRSM Learning and Qualifications Development Manager Russell Jackson said: "Production of the two Brass Mix books has been a real joy because it's meant working with some of the most exciting Brass composers around today.
"It's an even greater pleasure to know that the books we have together produced are playing a larger role in enriching ABRSM's own repertoire lists, and, even better, enriching the canon of great music available to brass players at all levels."