John Continued to Play As Second Trumpet on Tour Withthe Festival Ballet and Northern Sinfonia

JOHN WALLACE

BIOGRAPHY

John Wallace grew up in the Brass Band tradition inScotland. In 1965 he toured Europe with the NationalYouth Orchestra of Great Britain conducted by RudolfSchwarz as soloist in the Haydn Trumpet Concerto. Incommon with many NYO players of the sixties – MarkElder, Anthony Pay, David Pountney, Andrew Davis, DavidAtherton, John was directed towards Cambridge by theindomitable Dame Ruth Railton. After taking a musicdegree at King’s College, during David Willcocks timeas Director of Music, John went to the Royal Academyof Music as a composition student of Alan Bush, andthence to York University as a student of David Blake.

John continued to play as second trumpet on tour withthe Festival Ballet and Northern Sinfonia, in order tohelp pay for his continuing studies, and en passantlearned the complicated craft of orchestral trumpetplaying from the bottom up. Gradually ‘trombamania’overtook the composing muse, and, after periodswith the RPO and LSO as Assistant Principal Trumpet,John went on to become Principal Trumpet, and vice-Chairman of the Council, of the Philharmonia.

In 1981, John’s career took an opportune twistwhen he played the trumpet obligato to Kiri TeKanawa’s soprano in the Handel aria, Let the BrightSeraphim conducted by Sir David Willcocks, at the RoyalWedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. Theexposure led to many solo engagements and duringhis subsequent career as a trumpet player, John playedconcertos with many conductors including SimonRattle, Andrew Davis, Riccardo Muti, Giuseppe Sinopoli,Esa-PekkaSalonen, Leonard Slatkin, and premierednew works by Malcolm Arnold, Peter Maxwell Davies,Harrison Birtwistle, James MacMillan, Tim Souster,

Robert Saxton, Mark Antony Turnage, HK Gruber,Dominic Muldowney, and Robert Saxton, amongst manyothers.

In 1986, John created his flexible brass interest group, The Wallace Collection. This incredible groupof eccentric virtuosos also included his friend andcolleague John Miller, who, incidentally, was also amember of Tullis Russell Mills Junior Band in Markinch,Fife at age 6; also an NYO member at age 15; also aKingsman; also a fellow Philharmonian. The two Johnsfrom Fife and the Wallace Collection have made over 30solo and ensemble CDs for Nimbus, EMI, EMI Toshiba,Collins Classics, JVC, BIS, Deux-Elles and Linn Records.

In 2002 he returned to Scotland to becomePrincipal of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland,

a multidisciplinary institution of Drama, Dance,Production, Screen and Music. He left this positionin September 2014 to resume his musical career, reforming The Wallace Collection, and composing newmusic for brass.

With Trevor Herbert he co-edited the CambridgeUniversity Press Companion to Brass Instruments and,with Alexander McGrattan, wrote a history of TheTrumpet, published in 2012 by Yale University Press.

John was awarded the OBE in 1995 in recognition of his distinguished services to Music, and the CBE in 2011 for services to Dance, Music and Drama in Scotland.

Please contact our Publicist, Clair Tomalin, if you require any further information or additional photographs. d.

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