OBC is the best kept secret in Oberaargau. It’s an amazing 70 piece symphonic wind orchestra that is made up of amateur musicians who take a weeks holiday to spend making music and eating great food!

70 wonderful musicians, one week of intense rehearsals and two packed out concerts (with standing ovations).

Thanks to everyone at the Oberaargauisches Blasmusikcamp - OBC - for a great week of music making! Special thanks for performing the world premiere of Orange Blazing Clouds as an encore

Here’s a link to the programme

James Barnes : Symphonic Overture

W. Francis McBeth : Of Sailors and Whales

John Mackey : Sasparilla

David McVeigh : Orange Blazing Clouds - An encore written especially for this wind orchestra

Wow, just an amazing weekend of music making rehearsing with Bern University‘s Summer Orchestra „Sommer Ensemble“.

Bartók‘s Hungarian Sketches (originally for piano) are lesser known beautiful short movements, Jonas‘s rendition of the Arutjunjan is stirring stuff and Scheherazade has been on my wish list for a long time. What an amazing piece! Yacin Elbay is leading the orchestra for the first time and he‘s nailing the solos.

Definitely a concert worth coming to if you’re in town!

Yes, it does say „Klassik ist sexy“ on the wall at the back.

Words: Stefan Müller Altermatt

Music: David McVeigh

This was a trip into the pop business with a friend of mine, Stefan Müller-Altermatt, who wanted to do something completely different for his political campaign.

It’s a call to his political colleges to concentrate on the important things in life that will actually make a positive difference to people, rather than getting lost in idealogical arguments.

Here’s a rough translation of the chorus:

It’s like playing football without a goal, it’s like rowing without a direction, just pointlessly going back and forth. We’re dancing without moving. Let’s get something moving for the things that count: for real life.

Inspired by my son‘s stories about pirates and hidden treasures. The music flows like the ocean.

My wish is that everyone can experience the joys of music and feel the same passion and joy that I do when I experience a moving performance, or the simple beauty of hearing a child sing a nursery rhyme, or the wonder of bird song.

Every one of us has to find his or her own style and the only way of doing this is to try out everything and anything until we find something that fits. This works for clothes, it works for food and it’s the same for music. But the thing that surprises me over and over again, is that the better you understand something, the more moving it can become, even if it didn’t touch you to start with, it doesn’t mean it never will. So stay open to new experiences and visit live events as much as you can to get new inspiration.