BTS website

I'm proud to say that the British Trombone Society has recently launched a superb looking website for trombonists. After a few weeks dipping my toe in the water with my contributions to their news/events pages, I've taken on the position of News and Events Editor. So I'll be focussing on providing them with all the most important and official trombone and brass news. So I encourage you to check their News page which is in a format very similar to this site, and also their unique Calendar which lists the trombone/brass events coming up so you don't miss any!

But this means I can make hotbrass.info more of a personal site, so continue reading here for more news, reviews and opinion.

I hope you like the new format! Let me know what you think - my email is at the top-right.

Dave

Hear Ben van Dijk for free

Ben van Dijk has made four tracks of his recent recording Melody (reviewed here) available for free listening on-line. You need Macromedia Flash, but you get decent quality playback.

X-rated photographs

Trombone sex. You wondered where new trombones came from. Well the gorey facts have been revealed for the first time by an American photographer who said the idea came to him during marching band rehearsals.

Depraved.

PJBE bargain

The Philip Jones Brass Ensemble built themselves a fine reputation through the 60's, 70's and 80's and recording a good quantity of the brass ensemble repertoire that they worked so hard to develop.

I've just noticed that one of their 'best of' compilation double CD sets is selling at half price at Presto Classical this weekend. So for a mere £6.24 + £1.50 P&P (UK) you can pick up this collection that features a good cross-section of their playing:

Byrd's The Earle of Oxford March, Susato Renaissance Suite, Scheidt Battle Suite, Bull Pavanne, Jolivert Fanfare, Malcolm Arnold Quintet, Bozza Sonatine, Ewald Symphony for Brass, Walton Spitfire and Prelude, Copland Fanfare for the Common Man, Arban Etude, Tchaikovsky Waltz from Sleeping Beauty, Maurer Pieces for Brass Quintet, Mozart Serenade, Joplin 2 rags, Debussey Le Petit Negre, Mendelssohn Tarantella, Dvorak Humoresque, Hazel Borage, Tico Tico, Dukas Fanfare La Peri, Strauss Fanfare Stadt Wien and Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition

Apparently this offer will end on 18 April.

Flushed singer

Singers and orchestras love Italian conductor Carlo Felice Cillario for his passionate musicality, but his body language can be inflammatory:

"He just held his nose and pulled the chain at a tenor once,"

remembers Scott Evans, Orchestra Victoria's principal trombonist.

"They had to restrain the tenor from coming into the pit."

From Australian newspaper The Age

Ben Thompson wins BBC competition

Congratulations to tuba player Ben Thompson who on Friday night became BBC Radio 2 Young Brass Soloist 2006.

His performance of Rodney Newton's 'Capriccio' accompanied by the Black Dyke Band at the RNCM impressed judges Jamie Prophet and Lynda Nicholson. His prize is to record solos for broadcast on BBC Radio 2 with a top section band (to be announced).

Ben is 19 and currently studying at the RNCM in Manchester. Banding experience includes Besses and Leyland and in the orchestral world he's been principal tuba at the National Youth Orchestra and reserve for the European Union Youth Orchestra.

The full story about Ben and fellow finalists Kate Eggleshaw (tenor horn), Steven Haynes (trombone) and Daniel Powell (tenor horn) on 4BR. You can listen to the final for the rest of this week here.