Born into a farming family, Rob Burton has achieved Grade 8 distinctions in clarinet, saxophone, piano, and recorder. After starting the recorder aged five and piano aged eight, it was his parents’ love of the saxophone that inspired him to take up the instrument aged nine.
‘I always knew I wanted to play the saxophone,’ he says. ‘I think my parents kind of put the idea in my head. They aren't musical at all, but they loved the saxophone. They would always be listening to the saxophone, talking about it all the time. So when a new music teacher offered saxophone lessons at my school, the opportunity arose and I took it.’
Aged 13, Burton successfully auditioned on both saxophone and recorder for Junior Guildhall, which was also when he decided to focus on the saxophone as his principal study.
Like many young players, he was initially attracted to the saxophone's cool, jazzy image. ‘When my parents showed me the saxophone before I started, it was always jazz,’ he says. ‘Whenever I took graded exams, if there was a piece in more of a jazz style I would always love that more than the others.
‘I actually got into classical saxophone kind of by accident. When I was filling out the application form for Junior Guildhall I could either choose saxophone or jazz saxophone and I didn't really know the difference. I didn't know if jazz saxophone meant just jazz, or if saxophone meant a little bit of everything. So in the end, I put down saxophone and thought, “I can always change after a year anyway”. Turns out, it was classical saxophone, but literally within the first week I think I fell in love. The first pieces my teacher set I just adored and from then on, I guess I've never turned back.’
Rob Burton: ‘I always knew I wanted to play the saxophone’ © GREG MILNER/BBC
Burton studied saxophone at Junior Guildhall with Paul Stevens, where he was finalist in the ‘Lutine Prize’ (the equivalent of the senior school's Gold Medal) for three consecutive years and became a member of the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Great Britain. During the week, he continued to participate in various ensembles and choirs at his local secondary school, Hinchingbrooke, near Huntingdon, where he studied until he was 18.
With job opportunities sadly few and far between for classical saxophonists, Burton took up the clarinet aged 16, with his sights firmly set on a career as a wind doubler in West End pit orchestras.
‘I initially thought pit orchestras would be the way to go because being a soloist was just so unrealistic. I never thought I would get any solo opportunities in my career, apart from maybe a recital I organised myself in a church. But how things have unfolded in the last six months is just so unlike anything I ever thought would happen – so now we'll see.’
Burton first auditioned for BBC Young Musician in 2016, and credits a little gentle persuasion from his parents to apply again in 2018. ‘It was mainly my family who kept reminding me to fill out the application form. I really didn't think too much about the competition as I never thought it would turn into anything. I just didn't think I had it in me I guess, so I filled in the form and went from there.’
To enter this year's competition, applicants had to be age 18 or under on 1 January 2018, which enabled Burton to apply during his first undergraduate year at the Royal Academy of Music, studying saxophone under Simon Haram. Forever humble, Burton explains he didn't initially tell his teacher he had entered the competition.
‘I just didn't think it would be anything he needed to worry about. I really didn't think of it as a big thing, so I didn't tell him about it until I got through to the TV round and then he started helping me prepare for it.
‘I think my playing completely transformed from the first rounds of the competition. At the start, I was kind of just playing the notes and going along with it, but towards the end, my ideas were a lot more refined and I felt I knew what I wanted to achieve musically much more.’
In the Grand Final, Burton performed Paul Creston's saxophone concerto with the CBSO under Mark Wigglesworth. ‘I'd performed two concertos before with amateur orchestras, but playing with the CBSO was just awesome. It was like something I would listen to on a CD, hearing a saxophonist playing with an orchestra that just plays perfectly.
I learned so much playing with them and the whole experience was just so inspiring.’
After the whirlwind of the Grand Final, Burton was quickly brought down to earth with a series of coursework deadlines due the following week at the RAM. A few days later, he was also back on stage for his first end-of-year recital, performing his category final repertoire once more for the panel of RAM teachers.
Following BBC Young Musician, the Young Concert Artists Trust (YCAT) provides an aftercare scheme for all three grand finalists, offering expert advice and guidance on various aspects of their career development. In the short time since the competition, Burton has already received numerous recital and concerto bookings, including a solo recital at this summer's Cheltenham Festival.
When not performing, Burton enjoys walking his two dogs, visiting coffee shops and eating almond croissants. But how does the teenager see his future career developing? ‘If things continue in the direction they are going, I'd be more than happy. If I can continue to give recitals and perform concertos, and people keep enjoying it, that would be great.’
With two saxophonists reaching the Young Musician Grand Final in successive competitions, the saxophone world will be keeping its fingers crossed for a hat trick in 2020. In a final word of advice for future competitors, Burton says: ‘I think you just have to enjoy it. If you enjoy it and don't think of it as a competition, I think that's the best thing to do. Throughout the whole competition, I didn't even think about the results or getting through to the next round. That didn't even cross my mind in the slightest. I know it did for some competitors and that was their main goal, but I was just performing because I was there and I had the opportunity.
‘I had these really cool pieces I wanted to show off and just show what great things the saxophone could do. That was my main goal. And if I played well, I was happy.’
