International Trumpet Guild Podcast
Aug 7, 2026 · 40 min · 13 segments
In this episode, Raquel speaks with cornet superstar Tom Hutchinson about his career, musical journey, and early beginnings in brass band performance. Tom shares how he became involved in the world of…
Well, this is going to be a weird question, but how did you get into brass banding? And I ask that because in America, we go into wind band first.
Well, I think I got into brass banding, as I mentioned, in the fact that my father was in the local band.
And I was just fortunate that the primary school even that I was in, which is, I guess, your elementary school, kind of like 7 to 11, they had a brass band.
To give you an example, in the north of England, there would probably be... five or six fantastic brass bands, top bands.
And someone told me a stat the other day that I think the last time a band from the London region won the national championships in Great Britain was coming up to 100 years ago.
But the history of bands tends to be in the working class areas where industries were hot in the 1920s, 30s.
And where those workers on their downtime, or in their downtime rather, would look for activities to do.
I mean, the sort of the lifeblood of brass banding, I would say, is competing.
We do many competitions across the year in various formats and across different stages.
So you can move up and down the leagues depending on, of course, where you finish.
And that's what people really like about it is that, you know, it is it is music is an art form.
Well, this is going to be a weird question, but how did you get into brass banding? And I ask that because in America, we go into wind band first.
Well, I think I got into brass banding, as I mentioned, in the fact that my father was in the local band.
And I was just fortunate that the primary school even that I was in, which is, I guess, your elementary school, kind of like 7 to 11, they had a brass band.
To give you an example, in the north of England, there would probably be... five or six fantastic brass bands, top bands.
And someone told me a stat the other day that I think the last time a band from the London region won the national championships in Great Britain was coming up to 100 years ago.
But the history of bands tends to be in the working class areas where industries were hot in the 1920s, 30s.
And where those workers on their downtime, or in their downtime rather, would look for activities to do.
I mean, the sort of the lifeblood of brass banding, I would say, is competing.
We do many competitions across the year in various formats and across different stages.
So you can move up and down the leagues depending on, of course, where you finish.
And that's what people really like about it is that, you know, it is it is music is an art form.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
