The HBS mourns the recent passing of trumpeter, educationalist, scholar, and composer John Wallace, CBE. A member of the HBS since its founding, John was a cornerstone of the historic brass movement. His roots in the Scottish brass bands of Fife gave him a unique perspective from which he rose to the top of the musical world, but he held those roots close
to his heart throughout his life.

John had an insatiable curiosity and a keen interest in bringing to life works for the trumpet and of brass chamber music that had been lost in the sands of time. This included the recordings of the music of the Cyfarthfa Band and the re-discovery of the Bellon quintets in the 1990s, and more recently the performances of the Tollot arrangements of Haydn string quartets performed by The Wallace Collection at the 2024 HBS Symposium. He also brought his sense of innovation to his own compositions of modern music using original 19C instruments, such as in his one-act opera Opsnizing Dad.

As Head of Brass at the Royal Academy of Music in London he championed the inclusion of historic brass in the curriculum and continued those efforts when he moved back north to Glasgow, to become Principal of the RSAMD, now the Royal Conservatoire of
Scotland. It was due to John’s leadership that the RCS Archives and Collections holds several important brass collections, including those of Edward Tarr, John Webb, and Friedl Keim.

John was awarded the HBS Christopher Monk Award for outstanding contributions to the field of historic brass through research, performance and education in 2019. He was awarded The Queen’s Medal for Music in 2021 by Queen Elizabeth II for his tireless contributions to music and music education in the UK. In 2025, he received the ITG Honorary Award, and the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Honorary Membership.