Orchestral playing

Barry Tuckwell

Interview

Between the London Symphony Orchestra, international solo tours and Mozart or Strauss concertos, Barry Tuckwell reflects on sound, risk and musical instinct.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

The Newcomer

After 25 years as an undisputed orchestral authority, a German trombonist faces a new generation whose virtuosity unsettles the familiar hierarchy of his section.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Brass in the Operas of Berlioz

Berlioz turned a changing brass section into a dramatic force, using horns, trombones, cornets and saxhorns to shape colour, distance, ceremony and fear.

By Benjamin Perl

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.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

A New Job¹

A professional horn player faces a late chance to change course, as routine, ambition and the unnerving reality of an orchestral audition collide.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Vitaly Bujanowsky

The world's Golden Horn

Called one of the Soviet school’s finest performers by Shostakovich, Vitaliy Buyanovskiy shaped horn playing through performance, teaching and composition.

By Anatoly Barantsev

The Wrong Brass?

Between blind fidelity and reckless modernisation, instrument substitutions force performers to decide when the score’s wording serves—or betrays—the music.

By Rudolf Lewy

An American trumpet player's impressions of european brass performances

An American trumpet player reflects on European brass traditions, comparing education, amateur practice and professional performance across both continents.

By Harold E. Krueger

Individuality and Uniformity in Brass Players

As international standards reshape brass playing, musical individuality risks giving way to imitation, leaving tradition, ensemble work and personal conviction at stake.

By Hans-Joachim Drechsler

The untimely demise of the ophicleide

Once central to French orchestras, the ophicleide lost its place to the tuba—a disappearance shaped as much by institutions and repertoire as by sound.

By Stephen J. Weston

The Brass Sections of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

An international brass section takes shape in post-war New Zealand, where orchestral careers mingle with touring bands, immigration and some remarkably unconventional detours.

By Thomas Aitken

On the French School of horn playing

By Lucien Thevet

Henri Renart (1887-1979)

Interview

Henri Renart looks back on a remarkable musical life, from the wind bands of northern France to Paris’s leading orchestras, performing under renowned conductors while witnessing decades of change in performance, recording, teaching, and brass playing.

By Robert Coutet

Symphonic tuba playing

A warning from the orchestra: Lewis Waldeck challenges modern tuba playing—calling for a return from solo brilliance to the dark, blended power of true symphonic sound.

By Lewis Waldeck

Part 1

Arnold Jacobs

Interview

Two tuba giants meet in 1979 Chicago, where Arnold Jacobs turns technique, sound, orchestral life and pedagogy into a lasting musical ethic.

By Roger Bobo

Part 5

How and why I became a musician

In wartime Switzerland, a military assignment, a conductor's confusion and an abandoned instrument unexpectedly changed the course of Edouard Gros's musical career.

By Edouard Gros

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.

By Sergej Gorovoj

Part 4

How and why I became a musician

In Geneva on the eve of war, Edouard Gros navigates Ansermet’s demanding orchestra, summer trumpet engagements and the sudden upheaval of military mobilisation.

By Edouard Gros

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.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

A woman trombonist, Yvelise Girard

Women and Brass

From Paris conservatories to police bands, a young trombonist confronts isolation, scrutiny and ambition as women slowly enter the brass world.

By Jean Douay

Part 1

The trombone in Maurice Ravel's Bolero

How should Boléro’s trombone solo be played? After 100 performances, Jean Douay challenges conventions and argues for a more supple, controlled approach.

By Jean Douay

Brass and Strings

A note on personality types among musicians

Behind the formal discipline of the symphony orchestra, contrasting views of brass and string players reveal enduring questions about personality, class and musical culture.

By John Davies

Pyotr Naumovich Volkov (1877-1933)

First trombone professor at St. Petersburg Conservatory

From imperial St. Petersburg to Soviet Leningrad, Volkov shaped a distinctive Russian trombone tradition through performance, teaching and generations of pupils.

By Viktor Sumerkin

Women and Brass

Statements

Female brass players in British orchestras describe auditions, section dynamics and the pressure of proving themselves beyond musical ability.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez