THE MANY FACES OF GOD The British trombonist and inaugural winner of the 2015 ARD Music Competition, Michael Buchanan, will release his first album THE MANY FACES OF GOD on the Hamburg label ES-DUR. On his debut release, Michael Buchanan dedicates himself to the various facets of the divine. The key element of his spiritual journey is the trombone, with its broad spectrum of tonal expression. “Despite all our differences, we all look upwards into the same sky” notes Buchanan, focusing on the commonalities between the world’s heterogeneous faiths. The sound of the trombone in the tradition of Western “classical” art music is associated, possibly more than for any other instrument, with the divine, the beyond and the “otherworldly”. This is proven not only by the Three Equali for Four Trombones, WoO 30 - which Ludwig van Beethoven composed at the request of the Linz Cathedral capellmeister Glöggl as funeral music for All Souls’ Day. In Gluck’s “Orpheus and Eurydice”, the trombones brilliantly represent the underworld to which Orpheus travels; in Mozart's “Don Giovanni”, the instrument is used suddenly, in the final minutes of the opera, to accompany Don Giovanni’s descent into hell. Many other examples can also be found in compositions by Wagner, Mahler, Brahms and Schumann. This tonal content of his instrument is reflected by Michael Buchanan both in original compositions - such as Keren for Solo Trombone by Iannis Xenakis, the Sonata “Vox Gabrieli” for Trombone and Piano by Stjepan Šulek: and the Cantos II and Fantasma for Trombone and Orchestra by the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu — but also in adaptations such as the composition Kol Nidrei, op. 47 by Max Bruch, which is based on two themes of Jewish origin, and the Qawwali Sufi Folk Song, which originates in the islamic Sufi mystic movement. Michael Buchanan multi award-winning trombone player is 26 years old (25 at the time of recording) and based in London. At the age of 22 he was awarded the first prize and audience prize at the 2015 Munich ARD International Music Competition. This launched a solo career that lead to accolades such as the 2017 BMW-Publikumspreis at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Northern Germany and an official “debut” concert - together with the Deutsches Symphonie - Orchester Berlin - in the Berlin Philharmonie. After initiating an almost complete careerbreak from September 2017 to December 2018 in order to heal a physical issue, Michael returned to the stage in January 2019. As concerto soloist he has performed with orchestras such as the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Bern Symphony Orchestra. Together with his duo-partner the pianist Kasia Wieczorek, he has performed recitals at festivals including the Lucerne Festival, the BeethovenFest Bonn, the Schwarzwald Music Festival, the Wigmore Hall (London), as well as for SWR radio. Equally active as an orchestral musician, he honed his orchestral technique in the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra before beginning his career as principal trombone in the Orchestra of Scottish Opera. In 2016 he joined the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera Orchestras in a contract position for the 16-17 season. As a freelance principal trombone, Michael is frequently invited to perform with orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields, the London Sinfonietta and the Aurora Orchestra, as well as a personally selected member of Seiji Osawa’s Saito Kinen Festival Orchestra in Japan. Michael received his school education at Wells Cathedral School, a specialist music school in the UK, under the renowned trombone pedagogue Alan Hutt. In 2014 he graduated with 1st Class Honours in an academic music degree from the University of Cambridge. He completed his trombone studies in the class of Ian Bousfield, at the Hochschule der Künste, Bern, Switzerland, in 2016. Michael Buchanan is a Getzen artist performing on a Getzen 4147 trombone. www.michaelbuchanan.co.uk The Fanny Mendelssohn Förderpreis, established in 2014, is a private initiative of the Hamburg-based Heide Schwarzweller and has been awarded annually since then. The prize is endowed with €10,000, and is awarded for the specific purpose of producing a debut album. Further information about the Fanny Mendelssohn Förderpreis can be found at www.fannyfoerderpreis.com