5/6 - On July 13 the period-instrument virtuosos of the American Bach Soloists Festival & Academy (July 12-21, San Francisco) will perform Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber's gigantic Missa Salisburgensis. Performed only a handful of times since its 1682 premiere in Salzburg Cathedral, this choral extravaganza for nine different groups of instruments is massive, beautiful, and sure to be an extraordinary musical event! At 53 parts plus continuo it is probably the largest-scaled surviving work from the Baroque period. There is an especially heavy contingent of baroque trumpet players involved.

4/30 - The English Brass Academy is offering high quality music training for students, aged 8 -18, this August. For information click here to go to their website. Based at the magnificent Shrewsbury School & Beechwood Park School, the week-long courses promise to be great fun as well as educational and culminate in a concert for family and friends on the Friday afternoon.

BRASS WORKS Course
Brass Works is for all young brass players from beginner to grade 8 and the course contains small and large ensemble work; creative composition workshops, performance preparation and organised sports.

BRASS ELITE Course
Brass Elite is for advanced players (grade 8+) who would like to take their playing to the next level. This course contains masterclasses, chamber music, orchestral excerpts, creative composition workshops, mock auditions, health & well being and early music performance practice.

4/29 - La Cie du Globe has organized conference on the cornet and sacquebout from 15-22 August in Ardèche (France). Bernard Fourtet will be discussing Sacqueboute Serpent and Catherine Escure will be presenting on Cornet à bouquin. The session will coincide with a production of Lully's opera Cadmus et Hermione. For further information, please visit their website: http://www.lacompagnieduglobe.com/site.htm.

 

Sacqueboute - Serpent : Bernard Fourtet
Musicien de la fin du XXe et début du XXI siècles ; ses études de trombone et de musicologie le conduisirent à des activités professionnelles multiples d’instrumentiste (La Fenice, Ohimè, les Saqueboutiers, Hesperion XXI, Gabrieli consort and players, Amsterdam baroque orchestra, etc...), de directeur d’écoles de musique et d’enseignant au conservatoire de Toulouse, en stages et en collèges. Spécialisé en saqueboute, serpent, ophicléide, pour les répertoires sur instruments anciens, il fut professeur de ces disciplines au Département de Musique Ancienne du CRR de Toulouse à partir de 1994. L’un des «redécouvreurs» du Serpent à partir de 1984, il fut cofondateur du Trio de serpents «méandre», l’auteur d’une méthode de Serpent (2003), fondateur de l’Adonis et de la Facqoqcaf. 

4/26 - As many of you may already be aware, Adolph “Bud” Herseth, principal trumpet for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for 53 years passed away on April 13, 2013. His orchestral playing inspired legions of trumpeters. In addition to his great career as a symphonic performer, he served as a Navy Musician during WWII. RIP Bud Herseth, Trumpeter and Navy Veteran. Click here to read his obituary in the Chicago Tribune.

3/27 - George Butler has sent news about a new tenor sackbut by Lativian maker and trombonist Vairis Nartiss:

First impressions from a tourist friend from England tell me that the bore size is on the large side. Vairis Nartiss wanted to offer something that modern players could pick up and feel comfortable with right away, or something for the modern player to double with. The bell lines up with third position, chrome-nickel inner slides and there is a water key. They are lacquered. The mouthpiece rim is rounded, the cup is a funnel, the backbore is big, and it's gold plated. Apparently the source of manufacturing is wide and  some bits are from China, some from eastern Germany, some from Czech Republic, and some from Latvia. It comes with a nice, light, black-canvas-over-styrofoam case and the price until the end of March is €990.

More info: http://nartiss.lv/en/news/article/lorem-ipsum-dolor-sit-amet

3/19 -  Last year's release of a recording of Bach's Second Brandenburg Concerto played on a ventless natural trumpet by J. F. Madeuf created quite a stir. For those of you who do not believe it possible, there is a video on Youtube so you can see it with your own eyes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEJ-xcblCMo.

3/15 - We regret to report the passing of German musicologist Walter Salmen. Salmen studied musicology (under Besseler), philosophy, and history at the University of Heidelberg from 1944 to 1948, earning his doctorate from the University of Münster in 1949 with a dissertation on the German Tenorlied. After holding positions in Freiburg (research assistant at the German Folksong Archive), Saarbrücken (adjunct professor from 1963), and Kiel (full professor and director of the musicology department from 1966), he was appointed to the musicology chair at the University of Innsbruck in 1974. Following his retirement in 1992, he returned to the Freiburg area and was made honorary professor at the University of Freiburg in 1996.

            A prolific author, Salmen was active in many areas of musical research, including the social history of music, iconography, the history of dance, and music and musicians in Goethe's circle. Salmen also maintained an association with the Historic Brass Society, presenting a paper at the HBS sessions of the Musical Intersections Conference in Toronto in November 2000, contributing an article to the 2002 issue of the HBS Journal, and attending the 2004 HBS Symposium in Basel/Bad Säckingen. Walter Salmen died in Freiburg on 2 February 2013.

3/15 - David Whitwell's 13-volume History and Literature of the Wind Band and Wind Ensemble is now available in a new second edition.  The individual volumes can be seen and ordered from www.whitwellbooks.com  Also available on this site are his modern editions of early German, Italian and French original compositions and transcriptions for large wind band.

3/15 - A new examination of the the famed trumpeter of the Vienna Philharmonic Helmut Wobisch (1912-1980) has revealed some disturbing information. According to a news article in the March 12th issue of the New York Times by James R. Oestreich, the Vienna Philharmonic commissioned three historians to conduct an independent study of the orchestra's Nazi past. The study revealed that Wobisch joined the Nazi Party in 1933, while it was still illegal in Austria, and the SS in 1938, and spied on and denounced fellow musicians in the orchestra. He was fired by the orchestra after the war, rejoined it in 1947, became its executive director in 1954 and played in it until 1968. After convicted war criminal Baldur von Schirach was released from Spandau prison in 1966, Wobisch presented him, in an allegedly "private initiative," with a replica of the orchestra's “Honorary Ring,” as a replacement for Schirach’s original that was confiscated by US troops after the war. Wobisch's artistic activities were more noble than his personal ones. Wobsich made the first LP recording of the Haydn trumpet concerto, paving the way for the trumpet as a solo instrument, was a noted performer of the music of Bach and helped develop early attempts at designing Baroque trumpets.

3/12 - Kiri Tollaksenand Greg Ingles will be teaching at the Madison Early Music Festival from July 6 - 12 (http://continuingstudies.wisc.edu/lsa/memf/).The ensemble Dark Horse Consort will also be featured on the MEMF concert series.

3/7 - The Edinburgh Serpentarium 2013, hosted by Arnold Meyers and Murray Campbell will be held on 24-27 May. Further details and a schedule of events are available on their website: http://www.homepages.ed.ac.uk/am/.

2/19 - Don Johnson, who led "President Lincoln's Own Band" in the recent blockbuster movie "Lincoln" wrote up the story about his involvement with the movie for us. It has been posted under our interviews section.

Once again, the Historic Brass Society is holding its annual Historic Brass Festival in conjunction with the highly successful Vintage Brass Festival in picturesque Northfield, MN, August 1-4, 2013. This will be our third collaboration and we're looking forward to another fine festival with bands of all types from many parts of the United States as well as from Sweden and Austria. 

About 40 minutes south of the Twin Cities with much to see and do in and around Northfield, this is a great place to bring the family for a combined family vacation and conference.

For more details, see the Vintage Brass Festival site. 

... and check out that terrific picture from the 2010 Vintage Band Festival on the VBF home page!  That's Historic Brass Society webmaster, Steve Lundahl, on the right playing the Schreiber baritone.