From Germany to Newbury, a special delivery for Emily

Young musician in lockdown with this enormous contrabassoon

NEWBURY bassoonist Emily Ambrose is making good use of the current enforced time at home by getting to grips with a brand new Mollenhauer contrabassoon. When The Cherubim Trust received a generous donation enabling them to buy this enormous instrument, they asked if the talented young
musician would give it its first concert outing in the summer.

Fortunately, it arrived in the UK from the German manufacturer just before the current lockdown began, meaning Emily could make the most of having extra time to practise while schools are closed.

The Cherubim Trust is a registered charity based in Tisbury, Wiltshire, which loans professional-calibre instruments to aspiring musicians aged between 15 and 25, who cannot afford an instrument that matches their potential. They currently have a bank of more than 30 instruments, ranging from violin to vibraphone.

Fifteen-year-old Emily, who is a member of The National Youth Orchestra and a student at the Junior Department of The Royal Academy of Music, has played a Fox bassoon owned by Cherubim for the past year. She plans to audition for Conservatoires after finishing school and said: “Playing
Cherubim’s Fox bassoon has enabled me to really improve the quality of my sound, which is so important for wind players.

“Having the contra at the moment is great, as I have never had very much chance to play one before and when it comes to orchestral auditions it is important to be able to offer this as well as bassoon.
“I am very grateful to Cherubim for giving me these opportunties and I hope that my concert in the summer is able to go ahead.”

The new contrabassoon will be available to music students for short-term loans for orchestral projects or audition preparation. It is very rare to have an instrument of this calibre available for loan and it will provide a fantastic opportunity for those players lucky enough to use it.

More details of this and other instruments can be found at www.cherubimtrust.org