Ensembles - Childs Duo – Father and Son

Childs Duo – Father and Son

King Edward III once said: "If you want, to train a longbowman, start with his grandfather." This adage obviously holds just as true for Euphonium players. David was born in the Yorkshire village of Grimethorpe in 1981, into the Brass Band heartlands to a family whose name had been synonymous with the Euphonium for the last two generations. His grandfather, John was born in the Welsh valleys, close to where David now lives, and was a well-respected Euphonium player and conductor who inspired his sons, Robert and Nicholas to become outstanding players who developed into the legendary ‘Childs Brothers’. Robert & Nicholas toured all over the world as a duo regularly dazzling audiences in Australia, Japan, the USA and Europe. They developed a fantastic repertory of euphonium duets with piano, wind band, brass band and orchestra that are still played today, but no longer by the ‘Childs Brothers’. Nicholas retired from playing some 10 years ago to concentrate on his conducting career and successful recording company, Doyen. However, Robert continued to play and now combines his selective schedule as a soloist with his career as a conductor and educator.

When the opportunity has arisen, Robert & David have appeared together as a ‘Father & Son’ euphonium duo performing the ‘Childs Brothers’ repertoire. They have toured as a duo extensively and given performances in the Bridgewater Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall and Stravinsky Hall. Following their performance at the International Tuba & Euphonium Conference in Finland, an American reviewer commented:

“Bob and David Childs made ITEC history on Saturday afternoon by becoming the first father and son duo to perform at one of these events in their 28 year history. Their program was what Americans might call a “tag team” affair – a great mixture of alternating solos and duos that one hopes they’ll repeat in other venues. Their program was in 3 parts; Original repertoire for euphonium, classical arrangements and virtuoso show pieces. They began with Elgar Howarth’s haunting Cantabile for John Fletcher followed by breathtaking accounts of both Golland’s Euphonium Concerto No.1 (performed by Bob) and Wilby’s Concerto for Euphonium (performed by David). The father & son duo continued with classical works by Stanford, Hummel and Bizet before treating the audience with two traditional brass band show pieces; Carnival of Venice and Bob’s favourite, Rule Britannia. This historic recital came to a close with a dazzling performance of Philip Sparke’s Two Part Invention followed by the popular encore, Flight of the Bumble Bee.”

Robert & David still perform duets together and continue to get a great deal of satisfaction from the experience. However, in recent times it as been more frequent that Robert appears as guest conductor and David as guest soloist. Here is an extract from Stan Ewing’s review following their appearance in Canada as conductor and soloist with Toronto’s Hannaford Street Silver Band.

“After a magnanimous introduction from his father, David Childs presented two items; ‘Brillante’ (Graham) and Evelyn Glennie’s much loved ‘Little Prayer’, which we learned was transcribed by Robert for David’s 17th birthday. Reference had been made in Robert’s remarks that it had always been his goal to broaden the appeal of the euphonium to a wider audience, and he alluded to the fact that he was pleased that David was taking this goal to another level. One could almost see the buttons popping on proud father’s jacket, and can you blame him. David responded to the applause with an encore performance of Carnival of Venice.”

Whether it is as soloist and conductor or duet artists David enjoys the experience of making music with his father on every occasion.

“Over the years I have often had the pleasure of performing duets with my Dad. We have appeared as soloists together in a great number of concerts all over the place and on every occasion the feeling I have had when performing with him has been very special indeed. However, these days it is more usual for us to appear together as conductor and soloist which for me is equally special.”

There are rumours that Nicholas could be coming out of his euphonium playing retirement, so who knows – The ‘Childs Brothers’ may well be resurrected at some point in the future - or could it be the ‘Three Tenors’!