5/8 - At the most recent inquiry, affordable rooms were available at the hotel run by the Union Theological Seminary, which is located at 120th street and Broadway in Manhattan. Website: www.utsnyc.edu Email: landmark@uts.columbia.edu. Call: (212) 280-1313.
 

4/3 - We've posted the full program and schedule for the July Brass Symposium. For registration and other information, please see the events page.

3/28 - The Cambridge Woodwind Makers are delighted to be presenting the opportunity for you to make your own Natural Trumpet with expert craftsmen Robert Barclay, Richard Seraphinoff & Michael Münkwitz.

This five-day course begins on the 28th May and we recommend you book your place immediately to avoid disappointment. This highly acclaimed course has been run successfully in Germany and the US and those who attend will make their own copy of a Hans Hainlein Long trumpet from sheet brass, using the tools and techniques used by 17th Century makers. The course is suitable for adults, students, musicians and craftspeople of all abilities.

The course is offered through Cambridge Woodwind Makers a new charity dedicated to the preservation and promotion of woodwind instrument making through participation. They are based in the serene setting of the Champion Workshop, Bury Farm, Stapleford, Cambridge CB22 5BP.

For further information please see our website: www.cambridgewoodwindmakers.org or email: information@cambridgewoodwindmakers.org.
 

3/5 - Maurice André, the most influential trumpet soloist of his generation, passed away on February 25th, 2012 in Bayonne, in southwest France. Born on May 21, 1933 near Alés, in the south of France, he came from humble beginnings. He worked in the coal mines at the age of 14 for four years and learned to play the cornet as a child. He was encouraged to study at the Paris Conservatoire, but his family could not afford to send him. Learning that members of military bands received free tuition, he joined the Eighth Regiment Band. André eventually graduated from the Conservatoire and, after playing trumpet in a number of French orchestras, embarked on a career as a trumpet soloist. From 1967-1978 he was the trumpet professor at the Conservatoire. An enthusiastic supporter of the piccolo trumpet, he specialized in Baroque repertoire, playing numerous transcriptions of violin and oboe concerti. He also commissioned a number of contemporary trumpet solo works including music by Jolivet, Romasi and Langlais. In the 1960 he recorded extensively, almost single-handedly elevating the status of the trumpet to that of a solo instrument in the public’s eye. Maurice André was a brilliant musician with a masterful technique and beautiful lyrical quality who inspired generations of trumpeters.

3/5 - Rick Seraphinoff will be directing his annual Natural Horn Workshop on Jun 11-16, 2012 at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, Bloomington IN. The program will include daily master classes, ensemble sessions, and lectures. Info: www.music.indiana.edu/precollege/adult/natural-horn
 

2/29 - The 3rd Annual East Coast Band Conference devoted to Band History and Research will be held on 14 April 2012 at Rider University. The Conference focuses on the history and influences of both American and European Bands and Composers. Attendees are welcome to give a research presentation or talk about some aspect of military or concert band history or repertoire (please contact the organizers by 1 April). For more information visit https://sites.google.com/site/eastcoastbandconference/.

2/14 - Baroque trumpeter Barry Bauguess will be presenting workshops in May and July at Oberlin Conservatory and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Click on the respecive school for more details.

2/14 - The Maryland Early Brass Festival will take place at Goucher College on Saturday February 25th. The event will feature Baroque trumpet soloist Josh Cohen who will perform and give a masterclass. Festival Director, Elisa Koehler will present a lecture/demonstration on the evolution of the piccolo trumpet. There will be a showing of instruments, and performances. For more information: www.goucher.edu/earlybrass.
 

2/13 - First volume of a new series just published: 

Trumpets and Other High Brass: A History Inspired by the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, by Sabine Katharina Klaus

Trumpets and Other High Brass is a series in five volumes, illustrated with instruments from the Utley Collection at the National Music Museum, and in other major collections. It is informed by the most recent scholarship and latest imaging technologies, and will comprise a comprehensive history of the trumpet and related instruments, along with a complete photographic catalog of the Utley Collection.

Volume 1: Instruments of the Single Harmonic Series

This volume traces the development of high brass instruments without valves or keys from antiquity through the 20th-century Baroque trumpet revival. It covers ethnic instruments from many cultures, the emergence of the trumpet in Europe and dominant designs of the 16th through 18th centuries. The inclusion of military and signal trumpets, bugles, and such oddities as bicycle bugles and walking-stick trumpets enhances an already rich survey.

Hardcover, 358 pages, 8½ x 11", approximately 1000 illustrations, more than 800 in full color.
Includes DVD with musical examples performed on instruments from the Utley Collection.

ISBN: 978-0-9848269-0-2 (book) and ISBN: 0984826904 (DVD), $ 120.00 US

National Music Museum, University of South Dakota
414 East Clark Street, Vermillion, SD 57069
 

2/13 - The New York Times has reported on a rash of tuba thefts in California. Locks have been picked, doors unhinged, and lockers smashed but not a single computer or any other high priced bit of equipment has been stolen, only tubas! Trumpets, flutes, and violas (well, of course violas) remained safely in place. School music teachers have attributed the tuba raids to the growing popularity of banda, a traditional Mexican music form in which tubas play a dominant role. No arrests have been made. For the full story, click here.

1/29 - The HBS 1998 newsletter is now available to view online in PDF form. You may view it here.

1/23 - The HBS will have a half-day session at the International Musicological Society Congress in Rome on July 7th. Having participated with HBS Sessions in London (1997), Leuven (2002), and Zurich (2007) we are now pleased to join the IMS for the 4th time in the "Eternal City," Rome. The HBS session "The Trumpet and the Culture of Power" looks to be a great contribution to the Congress and will include: Trevor Herbert (The Trumpeter as Power Negotiator in England in the 16th Century), John Wallace (Innovative virtuosity as a Messenger of Power in the Millennial Trumpet), Joe Kaminsky (Asante Ivory Trumpets in the Pre-Colonial Military Religious Rites of Ghana), and Thomas Perchard (Jazz Trumpet and the Semiotics of Vulnerability). The session will be chaired by Renato Meucci.

Participants who wish to stay at the New School dorms should print and fill out the PDF file linked here and mail with full payment to the New School (payable to The New School). The conference registration form should be sent separately to the HBS with registration payment (payable to Historic Brass Society).

The 2012 Clifford Bevan Award for Excellence in Research

Call for Nominations

The International Tuba Euphonium Association established the Clifford Bevan Award for Excellence in Research to foster excellence and to encourage the highest level of research pertaining to the tuba, euphonium, and/or related instruments. Low-brass scholarship genres represent research on contemporary and historical topics related to acoustics, composition, theory, scoring, organology, and pedagogy and may include methodologies of oral history, biographical and ethnographic, historical, quantitative, statistical, and survey research.

The Bevan Award is presented at the biennial International Tuba Euphonium Conference in conjunction with the presentations of the Harvey G. Phillips Award for Composition and the Roger Bobo Award for Recording. The recipient of the Bevan Award receives a $500 stipend and an excerpt of the research is published in the ITEA Journal.

Click here for the 2012 ITEA Bevan Award Forms
For more information, send queries to
Craig Kridel, Coordinator, 2012 ITEA Bevan Research Award Committee,
ckridel@gmail.com

The Roger Bobo, Harvey G. Phillips, and Clifford Bevan Awards were established by ITEA to foster, encourage, and recognize excellence in the fields of recording, composition, and research. These awards recognize the very best artists, composers, and researchers who have produced work of the highest distinction and are indeed given to those whose work illustrates the highest level of artistry and scholarship, regardless of popularity or other factors.
 

10/17/11 - Douglas Yeo has completed a Report on “Le Serpent sans Sornettes,” a conference held in Paris, 6-7 October 2011. The program is available as well.