Musical Context

Globokar, Vinko

Possibilities for development of brass instruments (1967)

Experimental study by Vinko Globokar on extended techniques for brass instruments, covering microtonality, voice-instrument interaction and new sound production methods.

Stevens, Thomas

I chose to address myself to new music rather than new trumpet

Thomas Stevens argues that progress in trumpet playing depends on better training, repertoire and musical thinking rather than on equipment.

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.

Perantoni, Daniel

Contemporary systems and trends for the tuba

New music, new rules: Daniel Perantoni explores extended techniques, graphic notation and the evolving language of the tuba.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

Between tradition and innovation: brass players must move beyond routine and embrace new musical directions to remain relevant in the music of tomorrow.

Fenigstein, Victor

Scraps of Thoughts and Memories concerning “Passages” for trumpet and strings

Between waiting and movement, Passages reimagines soloist and orchestra—inviting exploration, listening, and the acceptance of the unexpected.

Underwood, Lee

Glenn Ferris - Profile

Beyond fame and labels: Glenn Ferris rejects the music business game—defining a raw, uncompromising vision of creativity, freedom, and what it means to truly play.

Johnson, Tommy

A guide to commercial tuba playing in the Los Angeles area

Hollywood reality check: Tommy Johnson reveals what it really takes to become a commercial tuba player in Los Angeles—skill, versatility… and patience.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Interview with Miles Anderson

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.

Varasdy, Frigyes

Contemporary Hungarian Brass Music

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.

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.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Benny Sluchin

Portrait in brief

Between Paris, Cologne and Tel Aviv, Benny Sluchin brings mathematics, acoustics and contemporary performance into the brass world.

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.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Miroslav Kejmar

Portrait in brief

From Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto to Czech contemporary music, the Prague trumpeter combined Baroque precision with orchestral versatility across Europe.

Ringger, Rolf Urs

Serious Music this Side of the Ghetto

Between Darmstadt serialism and neo-tonality, the place of serious music in society is questioned through Berg, Schönberg and the post-war avant-garde.

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.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

New editorial formats separate current news from long-form content while creating new links between performers, composers, and the evolving brass community.

Sluchin, Benny

Playing and singing simultaneously on brass instruments

From Weber and Vivier to contemporary solo works, singing into the brass instrument becomes a multiphonic technique shaped by notation, acoustics, and practice.

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.

Sluchin, Benny

Playing and singing simultaneously on brass instruments

From interval production and tone generation to contemporary repertoire, simultaneous playing and singing becomes a demanding extension of brass technique.

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.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

As music becomes increasingly industrialized, Jean-Pierre Mathez argues for restoring local musical communities where composers, performers and audiences shape a shared identity.

Sluchin, Benny

Playing and singing simultaneously on brass instruments

From Weber's Concertino to Berlioz's chord writing, acoustic principles explain how combination tones emerge from simultaneous playing and singing on brass.

Jones, Philip

1981 Geneva International Competition

Readers Letters

Philip Jones responds to the Geneva 1981 debate, arguing for fairer jury decisions, balanced repertoire, and the enduring value of international trumpet competitions.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

As concert life shifts away from brass, the future of the instrument depends on artistic standards, thoughtful programming and the commitment of every performer.

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.

Agrell, Jeffrey

Jazz and the Horn

The horn was once considered incompatible with jazz until changing ideas of sound and musicians like John Graas quietly overturned that certainty.

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.

Agrell, Jeffrey

Jazz and the Horn

Julius Watkins

A pioneering career, landmark recordings and collaborations with jazz legends gave the French horn a place it had never occupied before.

Hood, Boyde

10 Outstanding Trumpet Players in the Los Angeles Area

Behind the polished sound of Los Angeles studio trumpet playing stood remarkably similar training, disciplined routines, and a craft shaped by constant stylistic demands.

Laplace, Michel

The Trumpet and the Cornet in Jazz and Popular Music

Before Louis Armstrong became the defining figure, jazz already carried competing traditions of tone, style and technique shaped by cornet players across New Orleans and beyond.

Agrell, Jeffrey

Jazz and the Horn

Getting started

For the classically trained horn player, jazz replaces the security of the printed page with listening, swing and improvisation—and a different kind of discipline.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

Mass media, record-industry economics and the return of cornet virtuosity collide in a sharp warning about fashion, manipulation and musical independence.

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.

Laplace, Michel

The Trumpet and the Cornet in Jazz and Popular Music

The “Classical” Period 1927-1945 — The Golden Age of the Trumpet

Between Armstrong’s rise and bebop’s arrival, the trumpet became jazz’s dominant voice, reshaping technique, orchestras, sound, mutes and virtuosity.

Laplace, Michel

The Trumpet and the Cornet in Jazz and Popular Music

The pluralism of the so-called “modern” forms (1945 to the present)

Bebop, Miles Davis and the rise of the flugelhorn mark a postwar jazz landscape in which trumpet playing splintered into competing sounds and ideals.

Laplace, Michel

Harry James (1916-1983)

Young Man With A Horn

Harry James stood between jazz virtuosity and popular showmanship, turning the trumpet into a mass-audience voice without losing the respect of classical players.

Hübler, Klaus-K.

The Polyphonic Trombone

A suggested notation system

When trombone slide, overtones, breath and valves become independent musical voices, conventional notation reaches its limits and a new system becomes necessary.

Agrell, Jeffrey

Jazz and the Horn

Thomas Bacon

Classical discipline meets jazz-rock freedom as Thomas Bacon confronts improvisation, stylistic crossover and the physical demands placed on the horn.

Laplace, Michel

The Trumpet and the Cornet in Jazz and Popular Music

The instrument for jazz

Jazz trumpet playing balances equipment, embouchure and articulation, as changing sound ideals reshape mouthpieces, technique and the physical approach to playing.

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.

Aitken, Thomas

Melvyn Poore

Tuba britannica

A tuba becomes a laboratory for circular breathing, reeds, strange mutes and music theatre as Melvyn Poore pushes beyond the orchestral role assigned to it.

Laplace, Michel

The Trumpet and the Cornet in Jazz and in Popular Music

Breathing

Breathing, Valsalva, mouthpiece position and daily practice collide with received wisdom as trumpet technique is reconsidered from the body outward.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Wynton Marsalis

Interview

At 26, Wynton Marsalis confronts jazz education, popular culture and artistic integrity with convictions as uncompromising as his approach to the trumpet.

Watt, Robert L.

Miles Davis

Meeting with collard and mustard greens

A bag of greens opens an unusually intimate view of Miles Davis: cooking, horses, boxing, race and music collide far from the mythology of the stage.