Ashley Frampton - Double Bass
Ashley Frampton plays Principal Double Bass number three position in the Orchestra, as well as taking the role of Team Captain for Liverpool Philharmonic's cricket team. He joined the Orchestra in 1991.
Q. What is your instrument/ position/ job title in the Orchestra?
A. Assistant principal double bass No. 3 though I don't get there often these days :-)
Q. When did you join the Orchestra?
A. I joined officially in September 1990 though I did my first concert with the orchestra in Preston during October 1985; ever since seeing the orchestra at university in 1980 I wanted to come here.
Q. What was your earliest musical experience?
A. Taking part in a performance of Iolanthe by Gilbert & Sullivan at the Llandaff Technical college in Cardiff, my father was the Lord Chancellor and I was his page boy age 4 (I still have the pictures). I have loved Gilbert and Sullivan ever since and even spent three wonderful years in the D'Oyly Carte Opera company.
Q. If you could play a different instrument, which one would it be?
A. Something rare and unusual like a contra bass clarinet, a cimbalom or a Heckelphone but never the bagpipes or the bassoon!
Q. What would you most like to do if you weren’t a musician?
A. A TV weatherman, I loved all aspects of geography as a student and to be in front of a map telling people their barbecues are off or the cricket is cancelled due to flooding would be my idea of a job well done :-)
Q. What’s on your record/CD/MP3 Player/Spotify Playlist right now?
A. I have so many that I have to list:
1. The Mikado, the immortal 1972 recording with the D'Oyly Carte
2. Puccini - Messa di Gloria
3. Messiaen - St Francis of Assisi
4. Richard Strauss - Metamorphosen/Four last songs
5. Elvis Costello - My aim is true
6. Philip Glass - Akhnaten
7. Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn
Q. What is your favourite RLPO recording?
A. Very hard to choose, I like nearly all the ones we have done but three stick in the mind:
Pesek/Ein Heldenleben
Altricher/Church Windows - Dances of Galanta
Sullivan: Irish Symphony - Pineapple Poll
Q. What is your most memorable moment with the Phil so far?
A. Standing up to sing a solo in the come and sing HMS Pinafore (For he is an Englishman). Having to play the solo in Lieutenant Kijé at 10 minutes notice (served me right for not reading the schedule). Also playing Also Sprach Zarathustra at the Musikverein in Vienna.
Q. What do you like to do with your free time outside music?
A. Play cricket, more cricket, a bit of football, squash and arrange bass quartets. But nothing beats the smell of grass and the sound of leather on willow!
Q. What do you like most about Liverpool?
A. It is a real place, real people with real character, most towns you could be anywhere but not Liverpool.
