Jens Lindemann C.M., LL.D (Hon.), FRCMT (Hon.)(born 1966) is a German born Canadian trumpet soloist of Polish Jewish heritage now based in Los Angeles. He is the first classical brass soloist to be awarded the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honour. He played in the Canadian Brass from 1996 to 2001 and continues to play at major concert venues all over the world as an orchestral soloist, with chamber groups, jazz bands, and also as a recitalist and master clinician.

He is a professor with high distinction at University of California, Los Angeles and was a Distinguished Visiting Artist at Shenandoah Conservatory of Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia. He has also taught at the Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta. He also has an honorary doctorate (LL.D.) from McMaster University, Honorary Fellow (FRCMT) from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and the Medal of Excellence from MacEwan University.

He was named "Personality of the Year 2006" by the British magazine The Brass Herald, he also hosted the 33rd International Trumpet Guild conference at the Banff Centre in June 2008. He has given numerous world premières with orchestras including the North American première of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's concerto Nobody Knows with the Toronto Symphony.

He studied at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City and McGill University in Montreal. Among numerous distinctions, he has been a nominee for 2 Grammy awards, 5 Juno awards in 4 four different categories and received the Echo Classic in Germany. As part of Alberta's centenary celebrations in 2005, he gave a solo Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth II.

Jens Lindemann was also the first prize winner of two major international solo contests in 1992, the Prague Spring Festival competition and the Ellsworth Smith (Florida), both by unanimous juries. In May 2012, playing with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, he was the first Canadian trumpeter to perform as a featured soloist at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Founding member of the All-Star Brass which has recorded 4 CD's and as well as the first live brass chamber version of Ottorino Respighi's Pines of Rome, He is also the Artistic Director of the Banff Centre International Summer Brass Festival and Artistic Director of the Jeju International Wind Ensemble Festival in Korea.

He was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2014.

We are featuring this star trumpet player on this week's show playing the Ernst Sachse Concertino - listen out for his own cadenza in this performance with the Canadian Staff Band with BM: John Lam. 

'What Brass Bands did for me' - 'This is a book I have written about UK individuals who like me joined a brass band as a child. It was published in 2009. For me it was the gateway into over 60 years in the world of brass bands. I discovered there was little written about individuals from this musical world in 2009. So I decided to do something about it - and the idea for my book was born.

The book covers some of the musicians in UK brass bands who made it to the very top whilst others who started as players made a big impact as conductors, composers/arrangers and brass band administrators. What ever their role has been my book takes a look at these often unsung brass band heroes. I do have copies of my book available - please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - if you would like to know more about purchasing your copy..It costs £10 + p/p £3.75 = £13.75.  For overseas the postage will be a little more please ask.  

Enjoy the show..................Chris

It was at the age of eight that Gilles Rocha entered the Concordia music school in Vétroz, his village society, and received his first baritone lessons from the famous Swiss composer, Bertrand Moren. Very quickly, he won several cantonal and national competitions. Internationally, he obtained two second places in a row at the Intermusica competition in Birkfeld, Austria (2006 & 2007). In 2009, during the Brass Band World Championship in Kerkrade, he won the prize awarded to the best soloist of the competition.

In 2010, when he entered the Bern University of the Arts, Gilles changed his instrument and devoted himself exclusively to the euphonium. During his studies, he worked with Thomas Rüedi, a nationally and internationally renowned soloist.

In 2012, with this instrument, he won the Professional Euphonium Solo category at the major international competition of the International Tuba and Euphonium Conference (ITEC) at the Brucknerhaus in Linz, Austria. In 2013, he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Music at the Bern University of the Arts. In 2014, he won first prize at the International Jeju Brass Competition in South Korea. Gilles Rocha performs regularly as a soloist in Switzerland (Kultur und Kongresszentrum in Lucerne, Auditorium Stravinsky in Montreux) and abroad (International Convention Centre in Ghent in Belgium, Brucknerhaus in Linz in Austria, etc.).

In 2015, Gilles Rocha obtained a Master of Arts in Music Pedagogy at the Bern University of the Arts with excellent honours and congratulations from the jury. He is currently pursuing his musical studies for the Master of Arts in Music Performance in orchestral conducting at the Bern University of the Arts with Ludwig Wicky, Rolf Schumacher, Florian Ziemen and Corsin Tuor. He took various master classes with brass personalities including Steven Mead, Jan van der Roost, Henrie Adams and Rex Martin.

The actor and singer Nichelle Nichols, who has died aged 89, was one of the first black women to be featured on American television in a non-subservient role when she played the communications officer Lieutenant Nyota Uhura in the original Star Trek series (1966-69). She was also involved in the US’s first small-screen kiss between a black woman and a white man, Uhura and Captain Kirk (played by William Shatner), in 1968.

As a tribute to this remarkable lady we are featuring the music Star Trek - Voyage Home by Leonard Rosenmann arranged for brass bands by Darrol Barry.

Hello Everyone - it is good to be back. I have been on the Sky Princess cruise ship for two weeks as a guest speaker. The trip was to the Baltic and several stops during the cruise. I had six PowerPoint presentations to deliver, no brass bands on this trip. These went down well judging from the feedback I received. I met lots of smashing people from many parts of the world. I am certainly looking forward to the possibility of cruising with the company again sometime in the future. 

Enjoy the show.

Sorry, no new concert today...Normal service will resume on Sunday, July 31, 2022...

Sorry, no new concert today...Normal service will resume on Sunday, July 31, 2022...

Sorry, no new concert today...Normal service will resume on Sunday, July 31, 2022...

George Michael Cohan (July 3, 1878 – November 5, 1942) was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and theatrical producer.

Cohan began his career as a child, performing with his parents and sister in a vaudeville act known as "The Four Cohans". Beginning with Little Johnny Jones in 1904, he wrote, composed, produced, and appeared in more than three dozen Broadway musicals. Cohan wrote more than 50 shows and published more than 300 songs during his lifetime, including the standards "Over There", "Give My Regards to Broadway", "The Yankee Doodle Boy" and "You're a Grand Old Flag". As a composer, he was one of the early members of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. He displayed remarkable theatrical longevity, appearing in films until the 1930s and continuing to perform as a headline artist until 1940.

Known in the decade before World War I as "the man who owned Broadway", he is considered the father of American musical comedy. His life and music were depicted in the Oscar-winning film Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) and the 1968 musical George M! A statue of Cohan in Times Square, New York City commemorates his contributions to American musical theatre.

He died of cancer at the age of 64 on November 5, 1942, at his Manhattan apartment on Fifth Avenue, surrounded by family and friends. His funeral was held at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, and was attended by thousands of people, including five governors of New York, two mayors of New York City and the Postmaster General.

The honorary pallbearers included Irving Berlin, Eddie Cantor, Frank Crowninshield, Sol Bloom, Brooks Atkinson, Rube Goldberg, Walter Huston, George Jessel, Connie Mack, Joseph McCarthy, Eugene O'Neill, Sigmund Romberg, Lee Shubert and Fred Waring.Cohan was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City, in a private family mausoleum he had erected a quarter century earlier for his sister and parents

Hello Brass Banders - Welcome to this week's show. There is plenty of great music for your enjoyment on thre programme. I am sure there will be some of your old favourites and hopefully some new music that will in time become new favourites.

One of the all time favourite brass band marches 'Punchinello' by William Rimmer is on this week's show. The march was written in 1904.  The march is played by the Chicago Brass Band.   This week's image is the West Yorkshire Police Band playing the march on parade in Leeds 20 years ago. 

Enjoy the show...

Chris