You may have noticed that yesterday's post about Trevor Groom linked to a site called 4 Bars Rest, which is from the U.K. They generally cover the music scene, especially brass bands, in England and Europe. Below is a link to their podcast page. One highlight on the page is the podcast from the 2007 National Championships of Great Britain. In it is an interview with euphoniumist Michael Dodd, as well as a sample of the winning performance of Music for Battle Creek by Philip Sparke (performed by Grimethorpe Colliery UK Coal Band).

4 Bars Rest Podcasts

(If the particular broadcast I mention is not visible, here is a direct link to the MP3 File)

Serious euphonium fans who have been following the art for many years will certainly know of Trevor Groom. Trevor has a background in Salvation Army banding, and he was for many years the distinguished euphonium soloist with GUS (Footwear) Band. He won the Euphonium Player of the Year Award in 1981. It was for Trevor that Horovitz wrote his famous Concerto for Euphonium (you must be logged into the forum to follow this link).

In 2008 he is being recognized and honored with the Masters Dedicated Service Award. See more in the following article from 4 Bars Rest:

Groom to Be Honored

I use trumpet player Doc Severinsen as an example fairly often when I teach or talk about music. One of the reasons is that he epitomizes the way a brass player's embouchure should work. This has been proven true by the fact that he only retired from a busy and successful performance schedule last year at the age of 79. He was still playing with his huge sound and solid high register, which takes a well-developed embouchure.

The video below is one of Dick Clark's specials featuring an "all-star" band. There are many brief shots of many players. (Trivia: one of the examples is Frankie Avalon, known as a pop song composer and actor, but here heard as a trumpet player.) This particular video features Chuck Berry with all his showmanship. He and Doc Severinsen are both featured for a long segment on center stage and do a little interplay. At just about 5:56 on the video, Berry's guitar accidentally hits Doc in the head while Doc is playing. Doc shakes it off after a few seconds and goes right on just as strong as before. It's just one of those things that can happen during live stage antics, but someone with a weak embouchure who is playing at the ragged edge of his chops' ability is likely to suffer a bit more.

Enjoy the video!

Here is a new video of trombonist Dirk Amrein performing a movement of Mozart's horn concerto on a bass trumpet. The instrument he uses is more in the European style, which uses rotary valves and is configured in a horizontal manner. Companies like Bach also make bass trumpets, but they look more like a traditional American trumpet and use piston valves. This instrument usually has a tenor-trombone-size mouthpiece shank.

The same video is also found among the collection of euphonium or euphonium-related videos here:

Euphonium Videos

Regular visitors will already know that the Euphonium-Tuba Discussion Forum was not fully operational for a couple weeks. Registered users were not able to log in or post messages.

The forum is back now and working fine. To thank you for your patience I have added 3 new MP3 selections to the Downloads for Members Only section. Check them out!

Here is our newest featured recording, this time from The United States Marine Band. John Philip Sousa is known as "The March King" in the USA, but he also composed other types of music. Here is the Marine Band performing Sousa's Overture to the American Maid. This is from a live performance from November 15, 2004, as part of the Marine Band National Concert Tour.