The Threepenny Opera Suite

The Threepenny Opera is a 1928 German play with music by Bertolt Brecht of John Gay's 18th-century English ballad opera The Beggar's Opera with music by Kurt Weill. The work offers a socialist critique of the capitalist world. It opened in August 1928 at Berlin's Theater am Schiffbauerdamm. With influences from jazz and German dance music, songs from The Threepenny Opera have been widely covered and become standards, most notably The Ballad of Mack the Knife and Pirate Jenny. The Threepenny Opera has been performed in the UK, the USA, France, Russia, Italy, and Hungary. It has also been adapted for both film and radio. The orchestration involves a small ensemble with a good deal of doubling-up on instruments - in the original performances some 7 players covered a total of 23 instrumental parts, though modern performances typically now use more players).

Kurt Julian Weill (March 1900 – April 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the USA. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht. With Brecht, he wrote his best-known work, The Threepenny Opera. Weill held the ideal of writing music that served a socially useful purpose. He also wrote several works for the concert hall and a number of works on Jewish themes. He fled Nazi Germany in 1933, arriving in the US two years later. Settling in New York, he made a substantial contribution to American musical theater through works such as Lady in the Dark and Street Scene. Weill's music continues to be performed bothin popular and classical contexts. In Weill's lifetime, his work was most associated with the voice of his wife, Lotte Lenya, but shortly after his death Mack the Knife was established by Louis Armstrong and Bobby Darin as a jazz standard. His music has since been recorded by many performers, ranging from Nina Simone, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, The Doors, Milva, Willie Nelson, Ella Fitzgerald, David Bowie, Robbie Williams, Judy Collins, John Zorn, Dagmar Krause, Steeleye Span, The Young Gods, and PJ Harvey to New York's Metropolitan Opera and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. Singers as varied as Teresa Stratas, Ute Lemper, Gisela May, Anne Sofie von Otter, Max Raabe, Heinz Karl Gruber, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Rufus Wainwright and Marianne Faithfull have recorded entire albums of his music

Jock McKenzie studied trumpet at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester where he was a joint recipient of the college’s concerto prize. From 1987 Jock based his musical career in Hampshire, working as a freelance trumpeter, conductor, composer, arranger and brass teacher. Jock is a former Professional Leader (Brass) for Hampshire Music Service and was the Director of the Hampshire County Youth Band from 2004 until 2020. It is the mix of all of these musical roles that has led to Jock establishing a reputation as a leading creator of brass music resources, particularly in the field of education and brass ensemble music. In 2020 Jock was awarded an “Honorary Fellowship of the University of Winchester” for services to music education. Currently Jock is working part-time for the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama; providing tuition for their Brass Teaching Module. In 2024 Jock was given the award for “Services to Youth” by Brass Bands England.