Easher Austin

Easher Austin (14) is a Year 9 student at Loughborough Grammar School and also attends Junior Royal Birmingham Conservatoire on Saturdays. He plays clarinet, bass clarinet and organ. Playing bass clarinet in school and conservatoire wind bands is his favourite musical activity. For the past year, Easher has also played bass clarinet in the British Clarinet Ensemble which often plays challenging new repertoire which he really enjoys. Easher also studies organ, plays regularly at local church services and relishes the occasional opportunity to play really big organs at prestigious cathedrals!

Composition is something Easher has enjoyed since the age of 9 when he was inspired by hearing a wonderful live performance of Bernstein’s West Side Story. Easher has had two of his wind band compositions played in concerts by the Junior Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Wind Orchestra and his Sonata for Bass Clarinet and Piano was awarded Highly Commended in BBC Young Composer Competition 2023.

Marche Triomphale was inspired by the military-style marches Easher heard played at the coronation of King Charles III which he found very uplifting. He wanted his piece to communicate both triumphant feelings of victory and the sadness associated with fallen comrades and the longing for home. Hence, the work features a triumphant main theme in a major key and two more thoughtful secondary themes, one in the relative minor and one in major. Although The NYBBGB would obviously not march while performing this piece, Easher purposely wrote it in a standard military marching tempo (120 BPM) which helps create an authentic marching feeling.

Find out more about Easher and his work on his YouTube and Spotify channels.