Oh hey there!

Thanks for stopping by my very first ever blog post as Saxophonique! If you didn’t know already, my name is Cat, and I am a sax player based in Chester, Cheshire, and I play for all kinds of Weddings and Events all over the world!

I’ve had quite a few new followers on my social media accounts recently and so I thought it was probably time I reintroduced myself - this time in the form of this wonderful blog! A safe space where we may go on lots of tangents and journeys along the way… In the future I’ll be posting on here more often about events, weddings and tips I’ve come across after my 8 years working in the industry!

So let’s get to it…

This is me! Usually laughing or smiling, colourful hair, with a sax in my hand. (Note this is pre tattoos!)

Fun fact: This photo was actually taken on my last day with covid in our music room a.k.a. Pickering Street Studios! I was feeling a lot better by this point

I grew up surrounded by music, in a brass band playing the tenor horn! I also tried the trumpet, cornet, baritone, percussion and just got bored of EVERYTHING!! I knew I wanted to play music (I already played the recorder too - who didn’t!) but I just could not enjoy whichever brass instrument I tried.

THEN…

My friend just so happened to start learning the saxophone. I obviously had a go, and thought WOAH THIS IS COOL, so the very next week I hired one from my local music service. And the rest, they say, is history!

From teaching myself the sax to start with, I ended up having a few disastrous lessons at school and then the teacher left! So from that point on, I went to music centre every week with my sax in tow, playing in bands and wind orchestras and having the best time. I finally had some proper lessons and ended up doing my grades 7 and 8 by the time I was 15.

Fast forward 4 years and I was studying at the Royal Northern College of Music to earn my degree in music performance on classical saxophone. I feel like this was a great place to get my technique up to scratch, network with musicians and gain experience in the ‘real world’ alongside my studies. Nowadays, I don’t tend to play classical music, but once a month I rehearse with the excellent Equinox Saxophone Ensemble ready for our concerts throughout the year.

Since leaving the RNCM, I have done many different jobs including working in a cafe; in a bar; as a ticket steward; as a private saxophone teacher; as a conductor and sax ensemble director; as a workshop leader; as a social media manager; a function band consultant; and last but not least a full time musician! My days now are never boring, I mostly play sax for events in and around cheshire either by myself, as part of a band and sometimes as a sax player for a George Michael tribute band!

My week basically looks like this:

Mon-Thurs: Catch up on sleep and admin after the weekend, prep for gigs, plan content for socials etc.

Thurs, Fri, Sat: Performing in the evenings, sometimes during the daytime too in busy periods

Sun: Sometimes more gigs, mostly just attempt to rest and prepare for the next week…

I tend not to reply to emails over the weekend as I am usually prepping or driving or actually performing, but please know I will always reply to you as soon as I can! I also respond to DMs whenever I can too :)

At the moment, I am based in Chester, and love being here! I spent 7 years being based in central Manchester and had no intention of leaving… but then life happened and I ended up in the beautiful Cheshire region- about 5mins from the centre of Chester, how lucky is that?!

Even though I love Cheshire and my lovely (fancy!) new area, I am happy to travel worldwide with weddings and events. Just drop me a line and we can chat travel arrangements!

Or even better, you can get a tailored quote here…

I think that’s enough waffle about me for one day!

‘Til next time, folks!

C xx