Going through my hard drive, I came across some old recordings of myself. It had been a long time since I’d listened to them and thought it would be interesting to share them.

The first recording is from 2003, when I was still a student in Tenerife. I recorded the first movement of the Tomasi Concerto for a trombone competition. I was 17 years old at the time. Even though I feel the piece was over my head at that point, I think there is some really nice playing!

My second recording is a video from a live performance I gave in El Hierro, the island where I grew up. It’s from the summer of 2005 and I performed the third movement of the Tomasi Concerto. (Video coming soon :))

In 2007, while I was a student at the Rotterdam Conservatory, I recorded an audition tape for the Music Academy of the West, in Santa Barbara, California. The first movement of the Grondahl Concerto was my solo of choice. I have always liked this movement because it displays wonderfully the vast range of character our instrument is capable of producing!

The last recording is from 2010, from my first recital as a student at The Colburn School, in Los Angeles. I performed Jan Sandstrom’s Cantos de La Mancha for trombone and tape. What a fantastic piece! Unfortunately, I don’t have a video recording, since there is a lot of acting involved which isn’t perceivable in an audio format.

It is fascinating to hear how I used to struggle with certain aspects of my playing and how a couple of years later I was able to fix things and improve. However, it is equally fascinating to see how there are  also aspects, I struggle with now, that used to come very naturally to my playing. There is always and will always be work to be done.