10/20 - One of the great brass players and teachers, Harvey Phillips, died today. He retired as distinguished professor emeritus of the Department of Music, Indiana University, Bloomington after a long career as player, teacher, publisher and advocate. Starting with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Band, he was a member of many bands and orchestras, including the New York City Ballet, New York City Opera, Band of America, Goldman Band, U.S. Army Field Band, Symphony of the Air under Leopold Stokowski and Igor Stravinsky, the RCA Victor Orchestra, NBC Opera Orchestra, and the New York Brass Quintet. Often referred to as the "Paganini of the Tuba", he was also a world renowned solo artist, and his performances include two dozen Carnegie Hall (NYC) solo recitals, the first solo tuba recital at the Library of Congress, over two hundred clinic/recitals at colleges and universities throughout the world, with international tours of Japan, Australia, Scandinavia and Europe. He was  founder and president of the Harvey Phillips Foundation, Inc. which administers Octubafest, Tubachristmas, Tubasantas, Tubacompany, Tubajazz, etc.

10/19 - The American Brass Quintet, comprised of trumpeters Ted Weiss and Robert Henrich, trombonists Arnold Fromme and Gilbert Cohen and hornist Arthur Goldstein, gave their debut recital on December 11, 1960 at New York's 92nd Street Y. Fifty years later, this past October 15, 2010, the current incarnation of the ABQ presented an anniversary concert at New York's Alice Tully Hall. The current line-up  includes trumpeters Ray Mase and Kevin Cobb, trombonists Michael Powell and John Rojak and hornist David Wakefield presented a concert of 3 contemporary brass compositions by Joan Tower, Trevor Gureckis (NY Premiere), and David Sampson (New York Premiere) as well as a number of early Baroque pieces. They ended the performance with a glorious reading of Gabrieli's Sonata XX, assisted by 15 outstanding Juilliard brass students. While not the first ensemble of its kind, other groups organized in the 1950s including the New York Brass Quintet, the ABQ was important in helping to popularize much Renaissance and Baroque repertoire that would become the staple of cornett and sackbut ensembles and other early music groups.

9/24 - Wilhelm Bruns announces the release of his new recording of Haydn's Concertos 1 and 2 and Symphony No. 31 on natural horn under the Profil label. The recordings were made during the 2009 Haydn-Year celebrations. The HBS will be reviewing the CD in the near future.

9/23 - In January 2010 the natural horn player Anneke Scott was awarded a prestigious Finzi Travel Scholarship to undertake performance-­based research into the composer and horn player Jacques‐François Gallay. The scholarship will fund a month in Paris where Anneke will have the opportunity to focus specifically on Gallay’s "Douze Grands Caprices" – a set of unaccompanied pieces for horn written in the 1840s, in a very similar style
to the famous Paganini Caprices for solo violin – in preparation for the recording of the Caprices that Anneke will be making in November 2010. This will be the first time the set of highly virtuosic compositions has been recorded in its entirety on natural horn.

For more information see www.geraldfinzi.org and www.annekescott.com.

8/26 - The Museum für Musikinstrumente der Universität Leipzig will be featuring an exhibit entitled "The German Trombone" from Sep. 4, 2010 through July 29, 2011. More details are available on-line at www.grassimuseum.de.

8/11 - The Early Brass Festival in Northfield was a great success! Thanks to all who participated in making it an enjoyable and informative time for all. Plans are already underway for the 2011 EBF in Bloomington, Indiana. We are anticipating one or two significant keynote speakers/masterclasses and an interesting variety of scholarly papers and playing sessions. The weekend will also dovetail into the Barclay/Seraphinoff trumpet building class to save on travel expenses; those wishing to build an instrument are encouraged to register early as space is limited. Hope to see you there!

8/11 - John Gilligan is seeking any information on V .Caussinus (1806-1900) or his music. He was a member of the Conservatoire of Paris and wrote several instructive works, among them a method for the cornet. Please email him if you can be of help!

7/26 - In an effort to better serve our membership, the HBS website will, on a trial basis, post classified ads for brass instruments. If you wish to have your for-sale instrument considered for posting, please look at the terms and conditions.

7/24 - Henry Howey writes that he has posted 21 marches and four concert works by Amilcare Ponchielli for band in PDF, MP3, and MusicXML. Also, a funeral march for Manzoni and the Sulla Tomba di Garibaldi are included. He has also provided modern band transcriptions in parts. They have been prepared in celebration of the Sesquicentennial of the Italian Risorgimento (1861-2011). Visit http://www.shsu.edu/~org_neh/ for further information.

7/23 - ACor, the French association for horn, has announced the publication of a number of historic works for horn; click here to view. Their annual congress will be held November 19-21 in Orleans; for more information click here.

6/13 - Michael Collver has recently recorded Bismantova's Preludio on the new model of John McCann's cornetto in 440 on McCann's website www.mccann-cornetts.com  Also on the McCann website are performances by Fiona Russell, William Dongois, and Hans-Jacob Bollinger. (click "audio-visual" section).

4/28 - Oxford University Press intends to publish a second, revised and expanded edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, originally issued in 1984. Reflecting advances in scholarship during the past quarter-century, the second edition will encompass a greater range of subjects in more detail, thus serving a larger community of readers worldwide.

Your assistance is invited in enhancing the usefulness, accuracy, and diversity of articles in the forthcoming GMDI, which will appear both in print and incorporated into Grove Music Online.  Notice of errors and omissions in the previous edition and its derivatives, bibliographic updates, and suggestions for improvement especially in coverage of non-European and electronic instruments, can be e-mailed to the Editor-in-Chief at the address below.  All recommendations will be considered in planning new articles and revisions.

As a cooperative enterprise of encyclopedic scope, the GDMI second edition aims to represent the current state of instrument studies as comprehensively as possible while also preparing a platform for future expansion.  Timely advice from musicians and music historians, instrument makers and collectors, ethnomusicologists, organologists, teachers and students, and specialists in related fields is earnestly solicited.

Laurence Libin, Editor in Chief, Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, lelibin@optonline.net

4/15 - The American Bandmasters Association is offering a CD-ROM of the complete back issues of the Journal of Band Research from 1964-2005. There are 81 issues in full text format with an index of articles included. The price is $30 including shipping for the USA and Canada and $35 for other countries.

Contact: John Locke, Editor, Journal of Band Research, UNCG School of Music PO Box 26170, Greensboro, NC 27402-6170 USA Indicate JBR CD-ROM on the check or Call 1-800-999-2869 for Visa or MasterCard purchase.

4/14 - The HBS is co-sponsoring a conference on musical acoustics which is being presented by the Institute of Musical Acoustics (Wiener Klangstill) in Vienna on Sept 19-21, 2010. A number of other organizations are involved including the American Musical Instrument Society.