Eastbourne return is key career moment for saxophonist

The concert is the biggest, most formal concert he's done since graduating. Plus the college has huge personal significance: he attended the sixth form there. And to cap it all, Tom will be recording the concert (both visual and audio) for YouTube and Spotify.

Tickets through https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/tomsangster, but there will also be tickets on the door. Doors will be roughly 6.50pm

For Tom it's all a big moment in his career as a performer.

“I'm from Eastbourne and I went to Eastbourne College for the sixth form as a music scholar between 2016 and 2018. It was really, really great. It's a really good music department there and it was transformational for me. Until then I had mostly done jazz saxophone. It was while I was at Eastbourne College that I moved into the more classical music. It was a goal to do a diploma and at the time there wasn’t a jazz diploma so I did the classical diploma.

“I then went to Leeds University where I did music with performance. It's a wonderful city, and it took my small foundation in classical saxophone and really elevated it. The key was my third year which was at the peak of Covid. I went to Germany, to Frankfurt to study classical saxophone. That was a really great experience, learning about sound and refining my technique and it really woke me up to the fact that I had to invest in a really good saxophone. I really immersed myself in that sound world.

“That was 2020, about five months after the first lockdown. And I think two days after we arrived the next lockdown happened in Germany. My parents managed to get home but once things started opening up, it was a really great time. I felt really positive about the music and I would say that those days were the best days of my life. It was just absolutely wonderful.”

Tom now teaches at Ardingly College, from where he has planned the programme for his Eastbourne concert

“The performance space there is really magical and I wanted to go back to Eastbourne College and to keep a connection with Eastbourne College and to show just how far I have come since I was there – and also to prove to myself just how far I have come since I was there. There's a lot of pressure. It is going to be recorded for YouTube and Spotify. This is me taking the next step in my journey I'm getting my first recording experience of performing in front of an audience. Once you leave university it is quite hard to get freelance performing opportunities, and this is the first big formal thing that I have done since university on my own. This was the goal. I wanted to create an interesting repertoire that is difficult and challenging for me but also a programme that people will enjoy.”

“The Maslanka is incredibly evocative. I love David's compositional style. When he composes it's not just a form of self-expression. You can feel in the music that there is a lot of very picturesque music and a lot of very evocative imagery and a lot of emotions plus it's a very challenging piece to play.”

The full programme is: Tango Etude No 3 – Astor Piazzolla (unaccompanied); Pequeña Czarda – Pedro Iturralde; Concerto for Saxophone and Wind Orchestra – David Maslanka (Piano reduction, all 5 movements): Song: Fire in the Earth; Interlude: Bright Window, Your Night is Full of Stars; Song: Dear Jesus, what have you DONE?!; Interlude: Starry Night; and Song: Mortal, have you seen this?