In this bonus episode of TIAB we speak to the new artistic director of Cheltenham Music Festival, Jack Bazalgette.

Jack is an inspired choice for Cheltenham - as cofounder and director of Through The Noise he has programmed more than 130 concerts with innovative ensembles and repertoire in an eclectic mix of venues. He brings this visionary approach to the festival whilst still appealing to it’s loyal audience.

We chatted to Jack about Cheltenham festival highlights, balancing the new with what has already been established and potential future plans. He tells us about some of the less conventional venues and performances he’s helped bring together over the years - nowhere is too much of a challenge to stage a concert if you put your mind to it!

Jack is an inspirational person and his can-do attitude will make for exciting seasons ahead at the Cheltenham Festival. 

Thanks to Dan Hartland for setting up this thoroughly enjoyable chat!

Check out what’s going on at the festival here; https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/festivals/music-festival

And to find out more about Jack’s work at Through The Noise click here; https://www.throughthenoise.co.uk/

You can find us on the socials here;

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Anything you’d like to share with us? Any guests you’d love to hear or anything you’d like us to do better? Drop us a line at [email protected]

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This week, Seb and Verity welcome the brilliant and utterly charming Baroness Thangam Debbonaire - cellist, former MP, and now fully-fledged member of the House of Lords. 

With such a huge understanding and love of the arts - Thangam was shadow secretary for culture, media and sport, this was a throughly enjoyable and insightful chat including;

• Swapping Parliament for the Lords
• Thangam’s memories of music school in the 1980’s - both the brilliant education and a much darker underside
• How the arts can keep pace with AI and harness the positive elements
• The importance of music as a way of processing grief 
• Crafting the perfect running playlist - this is next level curation! 
• How arts organisations can make a real noise in politic

Thangam brings a rare and beautiful mix of musical soul and political nous to this episode and we loved having her. She is an incredibly positive person with a clear vision on ways to support and maintain/grow the arts - what a huge asset she is to the House of Lords! 

You can find us on the socials here;

Instagram @threeinabarpod

Tiktok @threeinabarpod

Three In A Bar on Youtube

Anything you’d like to share with us? Any guests you’d love to hear or anything you’d like us to do better? Drop us a line at [email protected]

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Aaron is back already! And this time Verity is nowhere to be seen. That's right, it's Seb's first solo interview. Well, it's not an interview really, more a chat, digging further into many aspects of being a trumpet player.

They discuss the following!

How important is equipment? They chat about trying out trumpets, mouthpieces, becoming (or not becoming) obsessed with gear. Or maybe it's better to actually work on own playing instead of just buying a new trumpet. Do some hard work or just buy a shiny new instrument?

Then a discussion on tonguing, articulation, and the POO ATTACK - which Seb can’t do, and it brings up some trauma for him from his time at RAM. Seb describes double tonguing everything he can rather than single tonguing because he’s lazy.

Playing the most difficult piece in the world AKA Brandenburg 2.

The first time they met on a gig in Poland where Aaron realised he knew Seb from watching a particular YouTube video.

Playing in symphony orchestras with minimal rehearsal.

Auditioning and doing trials.

The solitude of a soloist, and Seb gets a new gig as Aaron’s coach and mentor.

To get tickets for Aaron’s concert at the Cheltenham Festival 2025 click here; https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/events/aaron-akugbo-and-zeynep-%C3%B6zsuca

You can find us on the socials here;

Instagram @threeinabarpod

Tiktok @threeinabarpod

Three In A Bar on Youtube

Anything you’d like to share with us? Any guests you’d love to hear or anything you’d like us to do better? Drop us a line at [email protected]

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Your eyes do not deceive you - it’s two episodes in two days!

Fresh off of zencastr we wanted to whip out this chat with trumpeter Jack Jones as he has a HUGE gig this Friday (13 June ‘25) at EartH Hackney entitled The Listening Project Presents Acid Brass…if you haven’t got your ticket yet, what are you waiting for?! It’s going to be epic and we’ve stuck a link below so you can snap up the few remaining spots.

We chatted to Jack all about the origins of Acid Brass - originally performed in the 1990s it consists of a full brass band playing acid house music.

This project was originally the brainchild of artist Jeremy Deller and Jack has been collaborating with him on this latest incarnation. He discusses what it was like to work with this creative icon, sartorial choices and what Friday night will offer for the lucky audience members.

To get more info and bag a ticket click this link;

https://earthackney.co.uk/events/the-listening-project-presents-jeremy-dellers-acid-brass-afterparty-w-a-guy-called-gerald-13th-jun-earth-london-tickets-mxkwak/

You can find us on the socials here;

Instagram @threeinabarpod

Tiktok @threeinabarpod

Three In A Bar on Youtube

Anything you’d like to share with us? Any guests you’d love to hear or anything you’d like us to do better? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Seb and Verity are joined by trumpet sensation Aaron Akugbo. From unwittingly making it to the finals of a trumpet competition to playing the Haydn Concerto from memory and then smashing out Jolivet’s Second Concerto with basically zero prep, Aaron embodies an entirely admirable cool, can do attitude!

We also chat about:

✈️ Touring the US with Chineke! (hello, business class)

🧠 Performing from memory and tactical programming to save the chops.

🥴 Time zones and why the International Date Line is chaos

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 From Edinburgh to London – compare and contrast.

🥂 Going sober and feeling good

Plus, keeping in shape on the road and what it’s like to start at the Royal Academy of Music at just 17.

Hilarious, humble, and full of trumpet gold – you’ll love this one.

To get tickets for Aaron’s concert at the Cheltenham Festival 2025 click here; https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/events/aaron-akugbo-and-zeynep-%C3%B6zsuca

You can find us on the socials here;

Instagram @threeinabarpod

Tiktok @threeinabarpod

Three In A Bar on Youtube

Anything you’d like to share with us? Any guests you’d love to hear or anything you’d like us to do better? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sound the klaxon - it’s a national treasure alert!

This week we are honoured to be joined by internationally celebrated Mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly.

Dame Sarah has had an incredible career to date with standout performances including Giulio Cesare at Glyndebourne , multiple roles at the Met, the Royal Opera House, La Scala, Paris Opera and, of course Admiral Nelson in full naval regalia at the Last Night of the Proms.

Dame Sarah’s 24/25 season includes playing Auntie in WNO’s new production of Peter Grimes and Dido in Dido and Aeneas at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.

We are hugely grateful to Dan Hartland at the Cheltenham Festival for setting up this chat - Sarah will be performing Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody at the festival on 5 July (ticket link below)

With such a stellar career and a vast list of honours to her name, Dame Sarah remains incredibly warm and down-to-earth. We chat about controlling performance anxiety, how to avoid being pigeon holed, dealing with colds, auditioning, the power of positive thinking and how to wear a fatsuit…Enjoy!

To buy tickets for Dame Sarah’s performance at the Cheltenham festival on Saturday 5 July click here; https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/events/berlioz-te-deum

You can find us on the socials here;

Instagram @threeinabarpod

Tiktok @threeinabarpod

Three In A Bar on Youtube

Anything you’d like to share with us? Any guests you’d love to hear or anything you’d like us to do better? Drop us a line at [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week’s guest is Viola player, Negroni specialist and potential pilot of the future, James Flannery.

You may well recognise James’ dulcet tones as he has previously guest hosted the podcast for an Ivor Novello Awards special. This was a baptism of fire due to some speed guerilla reporting and Verity’s technical inabilities. It felt only right that we get James back for a full episode to banish the memories of his chaotic first appearance and restore his faith in podcasting! 

We chat to James about some of the extraordinary, weird and wonderful gigs he has experienced already in his career - think wedding on a runway, tours with a questionable vocalist, a BBC Christmas special and countless other scrapes along the way.

James also reveals a childhood passion for planes which got him into hot water with his family and airport security. And to think James was concerned he wouldn’t have enough to talk about!

You can find us on the socials here;

Instagram @threeinabarpod

Tiktok @threeinabarpod

Three In A Bar on Youtube

Anything you’d like to share with us? Any guests you’d love to hear or anything you’d like us to do better? Drop us a line at [email protected]

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It’s round two of our new feature where we throw extra questions at our poor, unsuspecting guests!

This week it’s our guest from the main episode, cellist Stephanie Cummins sitting in the hot seat.

If you would like to send over any questions for future guests either DM us on Instagram (@threeinabarpod) or email us at [email protected]. Thanks!

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