Dopey Monkey

Ensemble

Participated in the 2018 edition

Danielle Price › Tuba | Martin Thomson › Euphonium

Made up of Martin Thomson and Danielle Price, Dopey Monkey draw on their experience across various styles of music to create new compositions and explore everything the tuba and euphonium have to offer.

Originally from Elgin, Moray, Martin learned to play the euphonium through the Council's Music Education Scheme. In 2011, he moved to Edinburgh to study at St. Mary's Music School, where he won the SMMS Concerto Competition. Martin has given concerts and performed solo pieces throughout the UK, has been a soloist with several brass bands, and has also performed with his trombone quartet, Aeris Brass, which has worked alongside Carol Jarvis, John Kenny, Mike Lovatt, Rex Richardson, Glenn Munro, Susan Hamilton, Emily White, and Rick Taylor. Martin is a co-founder of the "Old Fountain Jazz Orchestra" – a big band made up of musicians from conservatoires across the UK. The orchestra raises money for various charities and provides an educational resource for areas without jazz education. Martin is currently pursuing a BMus in Jazz with Oren Marshall at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, where he performs regularly with a variety of ensembles, including the Old Jelly Rollers and the Dream Casters. He is a recipient of the Fordham University Founders' Scholarship, as well as the Donald Dewar Award, which supports Scotland's brightest and best young talent.

Supported by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, Danielle graduated with distinction from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's Master of Music course, where she received the RCS Governor's Brass Recital Prize and the Robert McCreath Memorial Award. Since then, she has enjoyed a versatile career, performing across a wide range of projects and ensembles, including the Pure Brass Quintet, Sensory Illusions, Red Note Ensemble, The Old Fountain Jazz Orchestra, "The Night With…" alongside Tom Poulson and Timothy Cooper, New Antonine Brass Quintet (current Live Music Now Scotland artists), and the traditional jazz group The Copper Cats. She has performed with the bands of Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat, Ashley Paul, Bella Hardy, and Oxbow, and works as an extra musician with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. In 2018, Danielle was a featured artist at the BBC Tectonics Festival, as well as at the Loch Shiel Festival, where she gave a special concert for solo tuba and tuba trio alongside Mark Reynolds and Antony Hook under the Glenfinnan Viaduct.