A trio of cornet stars from newly crowned Swiss National Champion Brass Band Treize Etoiles will be embarking on a short concert tour in their home country starting this weekend.
Generations
Entitled, ‘Générations — The 3 Cornets’, it will feature the band’s principal cornet Patrick Vergères (above), soprano Jeremy Coquoz, and flugel horn Stéphane Rudaz.
The tour concept offers the players the opportunity not only to showcase their individual talents, but to perform works by indigenous composers and diversify the musical reach of brass banding in crossing musical genres.
The trio will perform with four fanfare bands in the Valais area of the country — Concordia Vétroz, Concordia Bagnes, La Marcelline Grône and La Persevering Plan-Conthey, performing music from composers such as Bertrand Moren, Cedric Vergère and Gilles Rocha.
Long term project
The concert tour is part of a long term project by Patrick Vergères, who recently became an official Yamaha Neo artist.
He told 4BR: “Some years ago I have recorded my first solo CD, followed in 2010 with my CD recording with Belgian stars Harmen Vanhoorne and Raf Van Looveren for ‘The 3 Cornets’.
Now I have taken this further with Jeremy and Stéphane — two wonderful friends and performers with the concert tour with local village bands, aimed at performing new and existing works, especially from Swiss composers, but also doing so with a little bit of a Christmas flavour too.”
Brightest talents
Jeremy and Stéphane are regarded as being amongst the brightest young brass band players in Swiss brass banding, whilst Patrick’s reputation has already been sealed by his outstanding solo and ensemble performances.
19 year old Jeremy became Swiss soprano champion for a third consecutive year in 2014, topping the achievement by also winning the overall championship title, whilst Stéphane is also a past winner of the Swiss title, which he won 2010. He is also an outstanding vocalist and theatre actor.
I am very excited about performing with these two superb players and we hope that there will be music for everyone to enjoy — especially with a Swiss Christmas flavourPatrick Vergères
Superb players
As Patrick added: “I am very excited about performing with these two superb players and we hope that there will be music for everyone to enjoy — especially with a Swiss Christmas flavour.”
The concerts are at:
Bruson: 13th December with Concordia Bagnes
Plan-Conthey: 17th December with La Persevering Plan-Conthey
Vétroz: 20th December with Concordia Vétroz
Grône: 21st December with La Marcelline Grône
