Keith Bruce Paul Philbert

THE edition of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra that flies to the US on Friday is a few crucial personnel different from the one on the orchestra’s last visit in February 2017 – its first tour there in 30 years. Approaching a year in post, for example, is the man behind the timpani at the back, Paul Philbert.

Philbert already had a fan base among the RSNO’s faithful by the time his appointment was announced last year, having made a number of appearances “on trial” in one of the most visible positions on the concert platform. He was succeeding a well-known character behind the timps, Martin Gibson, who had clocked up 36 years with the orchestra. Since then, Philbert’s profile has grown, not least because he is an adept user of social media, posting pictures of his colleagues and their conductors and guest soloists in rehearsal and performance.

What is not a new experience for the musician, however, is the global travel. Philbert joined the orchestra from Opera North, where he had served three years as principal, before that he was a founder member of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, and between those two posts led an eye-wateringly peripatetic musician’s life that saw him clocking up a quarter of a million air-miles commuting between jobs with British orchestras, often on tour, and work in Taiwan, Korea and India.

The Symphony Orchestra of India, which made its first visit to the UK last month, including a concert at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall, employed Philbert for concerts at home with veteran Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit, when he was one of the “MPO 7”, a group of musicians whose contracts had not been renewed by the orchestra when relationships between the players and new management broke down.

The timpanist can look back on that period with equanimity now, but he had received the news of the termination of his employment as he began his honeymoon with his Korean wife Sue. She is a pianist and painter, and has quickly become a dynamic addition to Scotland’s Korean community, and Philbert is very assiduous in crediting her support as the couple relocated first to Leeds and then to Glasgow.

Having trained at the Purcell School and Trinity College of Music in London, Philbert began his professional career with the Malaysian orchestra, the dream of the chairman of petroleum-chemical giant Petronas and annually funded, it is said, by a mere six seconds worth of the annual turnover of the company.

“The goal was clear: to be the best we possibly could be without fear of budgetary restraints, within reason.”

Philbert is still grateful for the opportunities he was afforded as a young musician in Malaya – particularly the opportunity to play the Der Wald (The Forest) timpani concerto by Siegfried Matthus (“the hardest thing I’ve played in my life: it took a while just to map it out in a way that would actually work, never mind learn it all”) – but his departure led to opportunities in the UK.

The globe-trotting freelance career eventually led to a trail with Opera North in 2014. “When I started working with Opera North I felt like a foreigner in the UK, because there were these huge gaps in my cultural knowledge. Things like Strictly Come Dancing were part of a whole era of popular culture that I knew nothing about. I’d been away for 15 years.”

Born in London, his parents were from Grenada in the Caribbean. “There was always music on at home and my earliest memories are of hearing Handel’s Messiah. My mum played the piano and there was always singing at home.” His sister, a year younger, trained as a barrister.

At Opera North, Philbert found himself with a company at the peak of its form, particularly with productions that made the orchestra a visible part of the show.

“My first production as a member was a semi-staged Flying Dutchman with a big sail that was used as a screen. Then they started their Ring cycle and I was there for all of that, which was life-changing. The conductor of those, Richard Farnes, is a genius. He was all over everything and he is so unassuming..”

When he saw the job advertised with the RSNO, he was hesitant. “I thought: ‘I don’t want to move to Scotland’. Leeds was far enough from the equator and I missed the heat of Malaysia. But Sue said: ‘You have to apply,’ and I am so glad she did. Almost every day that I am sat playing with this orchestra there will be something wonderful that somebody will do and I am delighted to be a part of it.

“The RSNO ticks the right boxes for me. It is a wonderful collection of people, there are excellent facilities, and the vibe is right – everyone is friendly and relaxed. I’d played in Scotland the year before at the Edinburgh Festival with the Philharmonia and I’d been to Scotland maybe once or twice before – and only to Edinburgh. I’d never been to Glasgow, but here was this group of musicians where it felt so comfortable right from the word go.

“The RSNO offered me the job before I expected them to, and I said I would have to give the decision to Sue, because there was still a possible position on the back-burner in Korea, and she had been living out of a suitcase for too long. So it was her decision and she’s happy here – and I’m happy that she’s happy.”

Philbert is keen to credit his predecessor Martin Gibson. “Gibbo”, as he was universally known, was responsible for requesting the bespoke rooms that the RSNO timpanist enjoys at the orchestra’s new home next to Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

“I remember him being a competition judge when I was at college, and if he is ever back in Scotland the drinks are on me, because the set up that he has left is phenomenal. As far as I am aware, the RSNO offers quite unprecedented facilities for their timpanist. There is nothing like it anywhere else in the UK, with a dedicated workshop as well as a store-room and practice room. No disrespect to Opera North but there I’d be in an instrument store, which was the only place available to practise, and then I’d be told to stop because I could be heard in a public space below.”

Philbert had his work cut out from the start of his RSNO contract, with big works by Strauss and Brahms that are regular audition pieces to test timpanists in the orchestra’s season, and an incoming music director, Thomas Sondergard, who was a timpanist himself. But he has not one iota of regret about the move.

“To be absolutely honest, my stereotype of Scotland before I arrived was not entirely positive, and I have been humbled by the generosity, warmth and acceptance I have been greeted with here.

“That needs to be much more widely known.”

The RSNO plays the first of six dates on its US tour in Tuscon, Arizona on Sunday, then on to California.