Brian Evans became one of the finest exponents of the soprano cornet in the history of the banding movement, and a player who revolutionised the art of the instrument, giving it a prominence as solo instrument through immense performances as a contest and concert player with many of the finest bands in the country from the early 1960’s.
He came to overnight fame when from the back row cornet section of the CWS (Manchester) Band by the great Alex Mortimer—he called the great conductor, ‘The Master’, to replace the incumbent soprano cornet player to play in a concert at 24 hours notice. From that day his future playing career and banding immortality was secured.
He was taught by his uncle Fred Hilton and greatly influenced as a young man by Oliver Howarth, the father of Elgar Howarth.
From that initial unpromising debut start under Alex Mortimer he made the soprano chair his own and became the leading performer of his generation. He passed away in 2005. Listen out for Brian's solo from his CD 'Dedications'.