Spellbound by German ensemble in Oman

Muscat: Music lovers were left mesmerised after Jacaranda Ensemble delivered a performance worthy of a standing ovation on Monday night.
The German quintet’s use of classical and exotic instruments to create a style of classical music previously unheard of had the audience break out in rapturous applause after every piece ended.
The group, who are all experienced musicians with the Brandenburg Symphony in their native Germany, were invited to perform at Al Bustan Palace Hotel’s Oman Auditorium as part of the Muscat Chamber Music Series.
“We’re all friends who’ve been part of this orchestra for a long, long time,” said Thomas Hoffmann, one of the members of the group. “We used to try and combine different instruments from all around the world in our spare time to see how new music could be made, and we just used to do this for fun.
“We travel a lot with our orchestra, so we hear a lot of new sounds, and we’ve realised that people all over the world find joy with music,” he added. “If you open your ears to music from other cultures, it’s like a journey all around the world.”
The quintet consists of Sebastian Pietsch, Richard Mosthaf, Thomas Hoffmann, Thomas Ringleb and Matthias Dressler, who combine traditional instruments such as the clarinet, trumpet and trombone, with more exotic ones such as the Swiss alpenhorn, Australian didgeridoo and conga drums from Africa.
“It was nearly 20 years ago, when we were asked to play at a festival in Germany, and the organisers told us to go crazy with the instruments because they wanted to hear something new,” added Hoffmann. “That was when we began the idea of this Jacaranda group, and since then, we have toured all over the world and are constantly trying to add new instruments.”
“These days, people try to classify music into different categories, like jazz, or rock, or classical music, but at the end of the day, music is music,” he said. “When you listen to music and you close your eyes, you are transported somewhere else.”
But the one memory that stood out for everyone was the band from the British School Muscat, who took to the stage to play a piece with the group before the interval. Jacaranda had taken part in a workshop with the students just the day before the concert, and Hoffmann was thrilled to see how quickly the students had learned.
“We don’t believe that you can forcibly teach music,” he told Times of Oman. “When you learn music, you are supposed to be free, and you must play it with a smile because you are very lucky to be playing music for a living.
“I want to thank the Muscat Chamber Music Series and the organisers, Arabesque International for bringing us here, because Oman is a truly beautiful place and the people are very friendly,” he said. “When we come back to Germany, people are jealous of us when we say we have travelled to such lovely countries.”