John Wallace on Wagner's place in the development of the idiom of brass instruments.
The long nineteenth century was a period of great new invention in brass instruments, which enjoyed unparalleled public popularity as instruments of entertainment and recreation. Wagner took to chromatic brass early, and fused old idioms to the new mechanical means to create an entirely new sound world.
John Wallace grew up in the Brass Band tradition in Scotland. In 1965 he toured Europe with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and went on to be principal trumpet with the Philharmonia Orchestra after periods with the Royal Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestras as Assistant Principal trumpet. In 2002 he returned to Scotland to become Principal of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, a multi-disciplinary institution of drama, dance, production, screen and music. He left this position in Sept 2014 to resume his musical career, re-forming his brass ensemble, the New Wallace Collection, and composing new music for brass.
During his first career as a trumpet player, John played concertos with many conductors including Simon Rattle, Andrew Davis, Riccardo Muti, Guiseppe Sinopoli,, Leonard Slatkin, Eas-Pekka Salonen, and premiered new works by Malcolm Arnold, Peter Maxwell Davies, Harrison Birtwhistle, James MacMillan, Tim Souster, Robert Saxton, Mark Antony Turnage, HK Gruber, Dominic Muldeowney, amongst many others.
With Trevor Herbert, he co-edited the Cambridge Companion to Brass Instruments" (Cambridge University Press, 1997) and wrote, with Alexander McGrattan, "The Trumpet" (Yale Musical Instrument Series) published in 2012 by Yale University Press.
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