News & Events

Romantic Brass in Context: 19th-Century Brass Instruments in Military, Church, Chamber, Opera, and Orchestra, the Sixth International Romantic Brass Symposium is set for  April 20-22, 2023 in Bern, Switzerland, held by Hochschule der Künste Bern in collaboration with the Historic Brass Society.

The well-established Romantic Brass Symposia present current research on brass instruments, concentrating on music of the long 19^th century (1789–1914). After conferences on the keyed trumpet and the ophicleide, French horns, the materiality of brass instruments, the saxhorn, the conservation of historical brass instruments, and the trombone and acoustics, this sixth edition is open to all brass-related topics, highlighting interaction of brass instruments with their musical contexts. It is held in collaboration with the Historic Brass Society. Keynote addresses will be given by Sandy Coffin, Ignace De Keyser, Trevor Herbert, Sabine Klaus, Arnold Myers, and Anneke Scott.

It will include papers, lecture recitals and concerts with spoken commentary on all topics of brass instruments of the long 19^th century, including historically informed performance, style, repertoire, history, and instruments. The official language for the conference is English.

The symposium website is www.hkb-interpretation.ch/rbic. All information on program, fees and accommodation will be published there.

The fourth volume of Sabine Kalus's definitive series, Trumpets and Other High Brass -- A History Inspired by the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, is now available. Subtitled Heyday of the Cornet, Volume 4 explores the history of the piston-valve B-flat cornet.

This new volume describes the beginnings and initial model standardization of cornets in Paris and London, and the arrival of European designs and makers in the United States. It traces the unique exuberance of cornet models by American manufacturers and their advertising practices. The social phenomenon of the cornet as an affordable, mass-produced commodity in the most remote places of the American heartland is investigated through cornets made by central European manufacturers, modeled after American designs, and sold through dealers. Related developments of the E-flat cornet, the pocket cornet, the echo cornet, and some cornet cousins in the alto, tenor, and brass ranges, such as the balla horn and mellophone, are also considered.

Available only in hardcover, Volume 4 includes 352 pages in an 8-1/2" x 11" format. It features more than 800 color illustrations and includes a DVD of musical examples performed on instruments in the Utley Collection at the National Music Museum. Previous volumes in the series are also available:

Volume 1: Instruments of the Single Harmonic Series (2012) explores western and ethnic trumpets and bugles without slides, tone holes, keys or valves.

Volume 2: Ways to expand the Harmonic Series (2013) presents the history of the slide trumpet, the cornetto and serpent, the keyed trumpet, and the keyed bugle.

Volume 3: Valves Evolve (217) explores and documents the invention and development of valves for brass instruments.

In 2017 Sabine Klaus received the Historic Brass Society's highest honor, the Christopher Monk Award.

European orders should be made through Edition Whitehall.

Orders from the US and outside of Europe should be made through the National Music Museum directly. Use code CCXXII to receive a $25 (US) promotional discount through July 30, 2022.

​

Serving as Secretary of the Historic Brass Society is Dr. Joanna Hersey, a tubist, composer, and educator. In addition to her tuba degrees, Joanna also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Her work in the areas of race and gender is found in Volume 20 of our Historic Brass Society Journal, where she showcased the activity of female brass musicians touring through the American vaudeville era. Joanna served as Principal Tubist with the United States Coast Guard Band, and is now Associate Dean of Student Success and Curriculum for the College of Arts and Sciences, and Professor of Music, at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

We are very grateful for all that Joanna brings to the HBS!

Frank Hosticka and Jeff Nussbaum recently visited Metropolitan Museum of Art musical instrument curator Bradley Strauchen to examine a fascinating coiled 19^th century instrument by Jahn of Paris.

Congratulations to the 2022 Christopher Monk Award recipient, Charles Toet!

Toet was born in 1951 in the Hague. He received his musical training at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague, where he studied modern trombone with Anne Bijlsma (sr.) and Arthur Moore and where he began to specialize in early music and Baroque trombone. He taught at the same institution from 1976-2018, as well as at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Basel) from 1990-2019 and the Musikhochschule in Trossingen (Germany) from 1996-2007.

He currently divides his energies between the seventeenth century (mostly with Concerto Palatino of which he is the co-founder) and the Classical and early Romantic repertoires, played on original instruments.

Charles Toet has performed and recorded extensively with Bruce Dickey and Concerto Palatino and with numerous other ensembles of particular importance to the history of early music, including Syntagma Musicum of Amsterdam (Kees Otten), The Taverner Players of London (Andrew Parott), the Hilliard Ensemble, Hespérion XX (Jordi Savall), La Petite Bande (Sigiswald Kuijken), the vocal ensemble Currende (Erik van Nevel), Tragicomedia (Stephen Stubbs), Cantus Cölln (Konrad Junghänel), Bach Collegium Japan (Susuki Masaaki), The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra (Ton Koopman), and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées (Philippe Herreweghe).

Considered a pioneer in the performance practice and repertoire of the historical trombone, Charles Toet is frequently asked to be a guest performer and teacher in early music projects and courses around the world.

For more information about The Monk Award, visit https://historicbrass.org/community/awards/christopher-monk-award. 

The Queen has approved the award of Her Majesty’s Medal for Music for the year 2021 to John Wallace CBE.

An internationally renowned Scottish trumpet soloist, composer and educator, John Wallace is the seventeenth recipient of the award, following the celebrated organist Thomas Trotter, who received The Queen's Medal for Music 2020.

A close-knit group of historic brass lovers and performers recently enjoyed the first post-pandemic Historic Brass Festival at the Vintage Brass Festival in July in Northfield Minn., USA. The two festivals have collaborated about every three years since 2006. 

This year, there were 11 presentations, an informal Baroque trumpet playing session, a virtual presentation of this year’s Christopher Monk Award, and around 35 musical groups played in about 75 total performances over the duration of the festival. Some of the performers even included four members of the Historic Brass Society’s executive board. Stanley Curtis (HBS president,) Elisa Koehler (HBS vice-president,) and Steven Lundahl (HBS Executive Board member,) and Michael Connor (managing editor of Hisoric Brass Today) all played in Connor’s Newberry’s Victorian Cornet Band. Connor was one of the presenters. Curtis also played in the Kentucky Baroque Trumpets group.

The festival was also an opportunity to present the 2022 Christopher Monk Award to Charles Toet. Read more about Toet and this prestigious award.

It's here!

The inaugural edition of Historic Brass Today, an all-new publication of the Historic Brass Society was published twice per year between 2021 and 2024 when publication was suspended. It offered news items from the historic brass community around the globe, articles on a wide variety of topics, interviews, instrument reports, reviews, and other content.

Publication was suspended in 2024 due to reductions in our wonderful HIstoric Brass Today volunteer staff due to "real world" commitments.  We hope to be able to bring it back at some point in the future. If you are interested in donating some to help rebuild a team to reinstate publication of this excellent publication, please contact us through our Contact Us page.

The North American Baroque Trumpet Competition and Conference (NABTCC) was held April 11-12, 2022, at the University of Kentucky (UK). The event was sponsored by the Historic Brass Society (HBS), and organized through the HBS Events Committee. Additional sponsors included Maller Brass, Brass for Beginners, The Baroque Trumpet Shop, the UK School of Music, and the Singletary Center for the Arts.

The event began with a master class by Stanley Curtis, President of HBS and assistant professor at Colorado State University. Curtis discussed Girolamo Fantini's 1638 trumpet treatise and how it provides valuable pedagogical information for those learning Baroque natural trumpet. At 11am, Barry Bauguess (trumpet), Paige Whitley-Bauguess (dancer), and Steven Plank (organ), presented a lecture-recital, "Dance and Rhetoric in Baroque Music"; They were assisted by trumpeters Elisa Koehler, David
Wharton, Stan Curtis, and Jason Dovel.

Following the competition, a closing concert featured all of the guest artists and members of the UK
Baroque Trumpet Ensemble. The event was hosted by Jason Dovel, associate professor at the University of Kentucky, along with
support from UK teaching assistants Victor Yuen, Austin Stunkard, and Madison Barton.

Guest artists perform in the closing concert.