Philip Jones CBECBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for Commander of the Order of the British Empire, a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:*Calgary Board of Education, public school board for the city of Calgary, Alberta...
(March 12 1928–January 17 2000) was a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
trumpetThe trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC...
er and leader of an internationally famous brass chamber music ensemble.
Philip Jones was born in Bath,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. In 1944 he won a scholarship to the
Royal College of MusicThe Royal College of Music is a conservatoire located in the South Kensington district of London, England.-Background:The Royal College of Music's building, designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield, is situated on Prince Consort Road in the district of South Kensington, next to Imperial College, directly...
. He became principal trumpet for most major
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
orchestraAn orchestra is an instrumental ensemble, usually fairly large with string, brass, woodwind sections, and possibly a percussion section as well. The term orchestra derives from the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
s: The Royal Philharmonic (1956-60), the Philharmonia (1960-64), the Philharmonic (1964-65), the New Philharmonia (1965-67) and the BBC Symphony (1967-71).
Philip Jones CBECBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for Commander of the Order of the British Empire, a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:*Calgary Board of Education, public school board for the city of Calgary, Alberta...
(March 12 1928–January 17 2000) was a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
trumpetThe trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC...
er and leader of an internationally famous brass chamber music ensemble.
Philip Jones was born in Bath,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. In 1944 he won a scholarship to the
Royal College of MusicThe Royal College of Music is a conservatoire located in the South Kensington district of London, England.-Background:The Royal College of Music's building, designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield, is situated on Prince Consort Road in the district of South Kensington, next to Imperial College, directly...
. He became principal trumpet for most major
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
orchestraAn orchestra is an instrumental ensemble, usually fairly large with string, brass, woodwind sections, and possibly a percussion section as well. The term orchestra derives from the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
s: The Royal Philharmonic (1956-60), the Philharmonia (1960-64), the Philharmonic (1964-65), the New Philharmonia (1965-67) and the BBC Symphony (1967-71). His playing continues a line of English trumpeters that stretches back to Ernest Hall.
In 1951 he had formed the
Philip Jones Brass EnsembleThe Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, founded in 1951 by trumpeter Philip Jones, was one of the first modern classical brass ensembles to be formed. The group played either as a quintet or as a ten-piece, for larger halls...
, one of the first brass ensembles working regularly as a stable group. They grew from four members to ten and larger for special projects. The most usual formations were the quintet (two trumpets, horn, trombone and tuba) and the ten-piece (four trumpeters one sometimes doubling piccolo trumpet and one sometimes doubling flugel horn, horn, four trombones and tuba). The success of these formations owes much to Philip Jones's work.
After 1971 he devoted himself to it full-time and the group commanded long commitment from many fine players including: the trumpeters
Elgar HowarthElgar Howarth is an English conductor and composer.Howarth was educated in the 1950s at Manchester University and the Royal Manchester College of Music , where his fellow students included the composers Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Peter Maxwell Davies, and the...
, John Wilbraham, Michael Laird and James Watson; horn players Ivor James and Frank Lloyd; trombonists John Iveson and
Raymond PremruRaymond Eugene Premru was an American trombonist, composer, and music teacher, who was based for most of his career in London, England...
; and the renowned tubist
John FletcherJohn Fletcher was an English tuba player. He began his career as a horn player, but switched to the tuba upon his graduation from studying Natural Sciences at Pembroke College, Cambridge....
. They made 50 recordings and toured over 30 countries finding particular popularity in Japan. Repertoire spanned from transcriptions of early music by the likes of Giovanni Gabrieli,
MonteverdiClaudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi , was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period...
and Pezel, to new works for the medium commissioned by Jones. These included pieces by Witold Lutosławski,
Hans Werner HenzeHans Werner Henze is a German composer well known for his left-wing political convictions. He left Germany for Italy in 1953 because of a perceived intolerance towards his politics and homosexuality...
and Rautavarra; altogether they performed 87 world premieres. The ensemble's leader was noted for his meticulous preparations at every
concertA concert is a live performance, usually of music, before an audience. The music may be performed by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band. Informal names for a concert include "show" and "gig"...
, lining up the music stands himself, his personal commitment being one of the reasons for the ensemble's success.
In 1986 he accidentally drove his car over his own trumpet case. He took this as the hand of fate and decided to retire from concert performances. He held posts at the
Royal Northern College of MusicThe Royal Northern College of Music or RNCM is a conservatoire in Manchester, England. It is located on Oxford Road in Chorlton on Medlock, and is at the western edge of the campus of the University of Manchester. In addition to being a centre of education, the RNCM also functions as an arts centre...
and
Trinity College of MusicTrinity College of Music is one of the London music conservatories, based in Greenwich. It is part of Trinity Laban.The conservatoire is housed in the elegant riverside buildings of the former Greenwich Hospital, designed in part by Sir Christopher Wren...
, where he was Principal until his retirement in 1994. He was chairman of the Musicians Benevolent Fund in 1995. He was awarded the
OBEThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1977 and the
CBEThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1986. When not at work he divided his time between
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
and London.