Brass Ensemble

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Conversation by the fireside

A fireside conversation with Philip Jones, Elgar Howarth and Michael Laird—an intimate exchange on brass playing, ensemble culture and musical thinking.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Mario Guarneri

Portrait in brief

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.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

John Fletcher

Interview

From brass bands to chamber ensembles, John Fletcher reflects on the rapid rise of young British tubists and the changing role of the instrument.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Philip Jones

Interview

From South London bands to the Philharmonia, Philip Jones recalls his musical upbringing, orchestral life and the rise of brass ensembles in post-war Britain.

Sauer, Ralf

Transcription fundamentals

Between Bach fugues and Mozart concertos, Ralph Sauer questions where brass transcription renews a work — and where it merely imitates.

Bach, Markus S.

Women and brass: 3 Portraits

Barbara Stone, Betty Anderson, Kate Kaminga

Three British and Dutch conductors moved from brass band performance to leadership roles, confronting a scene still largely shaped by male traditions.

Agrell, Jeffrey

The first european horn symposium

A week in Trossingen brought leading horn players, Mozart debates, natural-horn controversies and lasting friendships at a landmark European gathering.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Empire Brass Quintet

Portrait in brief

From New York to Boston, five brass players built a chamber music identity rooted in Ewald, early music and a string-quartet approach to ensemble sound.

Olsen, Deborah M.

Music in an American Frontier Communal Society

Aurora Colony

In a German communal settlement on the Oregon frontier, bands, choirs and original compositions shaped daily life as strongly as faith, work and education.

Gorovoj, Sergej

Viktor Venglowski

Musician and Teacher

From the Leningrad Philharmonic to the Conservatoire, one trombonist shaped repertoire, ensembles and generations of players across the Soviet Union.

Sommerhalder, Max

Working with the Posaunenchor

From Württemberg youth groups to mass brass gatherings in Ulm, a community tradition links faith, education and amateur brass playing across generations.

Olsen, Deborah M.

Music in an American Frontier Communal Society

Aurora Colony

Music shaped daily life in Aurora’s communal colony, from civic ceremonies and political events to touring brass bands that carried its identity across the American West.

Olsen, Deborah M.

Music in an American Frontier Communal Society

Aurora Colony

Aurora’s bands, chamber groups and restored instruments show how communal faith, German heritage and American public life met in sound, from parlors to parades.

Sumerkin, Viktor

Vladislav Mykhaylovich Blazhevich (1881-1942)

Trombonist, Composer and Teacher

From village band to the Moscow Conservatoire and the Bolshoi, a lifelong commitment to performance, teaching and wind music shaped Soviet trombone tradition.

Hiller, Albert

Unknown Treasures for Trumpet Ensembles

Processional Music from 18th century Bavaria

Forgotten Bavarian monastery archives preserve hundreds of ceremonial trumpet works, where local tradition and practical performance survived long after their cultural world disappeared.

Ehmann, Wilhelm

100 Years of Kuhlo's Posaunenchor Book

A century-old brass choir book reveals how revivalist faith, Bach chorales, folk song, and practical notation reshaped church music.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

When careers pause and certainty fades, real progress begins in private, where discipline, friendship and chamber music reshape what it means to be a musician.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Brass Players in Rome

Behind Rome’s musical prestige, RAI brass players describe shrinking salaries, insecure orchestral careers and the compromises required simply to remain musicians.

Aitken, Thomas

A major chamber music work for brass?

Quintet, by Peter Maxwell Davies

A BBC studio session turns Maxwell Davies’s brass quintet into a test of virtuosity, balance and whether brass could claim a new place in chamber music.