It was a pleasure to welcome Sir Karl Jenkins back to our Swansea showrooms recently following his generous gift of our very own composition, titled ‘Down Carmarthen Road’, which is the address of our purpose-built piano showrooms in Swansea.
Sir Karl has been a loyal client of Coach House Pianos for the last 20 years, with both himself and his son being prolific composers and in need of quality instruments on which to write and perform their work.
Managing Director of Coach House Pianos, Sam Rusling, sat down with Sir Karl to catch up.
On discovering Coach House Pianos…
“I’ve been up and down this road since childhood. Eventually I was searching for a piano, and everyone said this was the best piano business in Britain, with fair prices, so I got in touch.”
“Over the years I’ve had 3 pianos from Coach House Pianos. I needed a piano that was MIDI compatible and silent, and the Yamaha’s were fantastic, so it was the ideal solution.”
On composing ‘Down Carmarthen Road’…
“It’s a piece that crosses bridges in many ways. It’s quasi-jazzy, quasi-bluesy, quasi-classical.”
“I was thinking of Carmarthen Road, and was going to call it Coach House, but that was too static. This piece has some resonance; it’s moving, like traffic moving, and it’s in 5:4 so has an odd lilt to it.”
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On Music Education…
“Learn the basics. Some people learn very quickly by ear, but from the other side, it’s easier if one learns the principles. Get a good grounding and learn harmony.
Stylistically, I’d say follow your own mind.
Until next time…
It was a pleasure to have Sir Karl and his family with us for the afternoon and we hope you enjoy his creative composition, inspired by Coach House Pianos and the beloved Carmarthen Road on which you can find us, as much as we do.
