Brass Bulletin No. 26

Roger Bobo

Roger Bobo reflects on orchestral auditions, examining imbalance between candidates and positions and questioning training, selection criteria and prospects for aspiring tubists.

Music Fair

Jean-Pierre Mathez

Jean-Pierre Mathez surveys the Frankfurt Music Fair, tracing makers, markets and competition, and outlining a brass landscape shaped by adjustment rather than innovation.

Interview

Jean-Pierre Mathez

Jean-Pierre Mathez reports on Renold Schilke’s views at Frankfurt, addressing fair organisation, maker–musician collaboration, and shifting market dynamics shaped by demand and quality criteria.

Biography

Jean-Pierre Mathez

Maurice André reflects on maturity—balancing performance, recordings and teaching, refining his approach to instruments and audience, and preparing for the limits of a virtuoso career.

Colin Bloch

Colin Bloch examines bell- and slide-tuned trumpets, comparing intonation patterns through controlled tests and outlining structural causes behind observed deviations.

Frøydis Ree Wekre

Frøydis Ree Wekre reflects on women in brass playing, examining physical assumptions, psychological factors, and practical realities across performance and professional life.

Jean-Pierre Mathez

Jean-Pierre Mathez traces Miles Anderson’s path from early training to orchestral and freelance work, expanding on the tension between livelihood and artistic pursuit.

Biography

Anatoly Selianin

Sélianine traces Brandt’s life and artistry, from Bolshoi virtuoso to influential pedagogue, revealing the foundations of a distinctly Russian trumpet tradition.

Herbert Heyde

Herbert Heyde traces early German valve instruments from Stoelzel’s horns to basses, makers, patents, and shifting brass-band sound.

Frigyes Varasdy

From early decline to recent revival, Hungarian brass emerges through pedagogy, competitions and new chamber works, with Varasdy outlining key figures and shifting ensemble practices.

Portrait in brief

Jean-Pierre Mathez

From San Francisco to New York and Los Angeles, a trumpet career unfolds across major orchestras, recordings and teaching, alongside a sustained commitment to access and contemporary music.