BY BARNEY MEDL AND
THE NEWS Well-deserved retirement for Frank Mathison After a legendary 74-year career, Frank Mathison has decided, at the age of 93, that it’s time to retire from playing. Frank hails from Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire. At the age of 12, he started out playing cornet in The Lindley Band. At 19, while doing National Service, Frank was offered a choice between a bassoon and an old G Trombone, he opted for the latter and so embarked on a distinguished career. Frank played bass trombone at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra for 13 years, before being recommended to the London Symphony Orchestra by Jascha Horenstein. He spent 30 years at the LSO, a key figure in the great brass section that included the likes of Denis Wick, John Fletcher, Maurice Murphy, Eric Crees, Patrick Harrild, and Ian Bousfield. He left the LSO in 1993, having recorded many of John William’s most famous film scores and having played under many of the 20th century’s greatest conductors. On retirement, George Solti presented Frank with a crystal goblet. After leaving the LSO, Mathison continued to play, including in brass bands in his home county of Yorkshire. Everyone at the BTS would like to wish Frank a happy and well-deserved retirement.
Bona-afide win inaugural RPS Philip Jones Prize The Royal Philharmonic Society has launched the Philip Jones Brass Prize, which awards £2,500 to ‘an outstanding individual brass player or brass ensemble of up to 5 players.’ The award is open to brass players of any nationality between the ages of 18–30, and ‘aims to recognise new talents arising who, in their own way, may proceed to make a positive difference to brass playing in the UK.’
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Trombone quartet Bone-afide have won the inaugural prize. The group’s winning programme included Debussy’s Trois Chansons, Strauss’s Three Mӓnnerchӧre and Apon’s First Quartet. The prize, provided by the RPS and Philip Jones’ widow Ursula, will go towards the group’s recording projects and aid the commissioning of new works and arrangements. Bone-afide have said they ‘feel very fortunate to have been offered this opportunity, both to further develop our ideas and also to be associated with the RPS. This prize will bring us one step closer to achieving our long-held goals: to rewrite the trombone quartet genre, showcase it to a wide and diverse audience and defy any stereotypes surrounding the instrument.’ In other news for the up-and-coming quartet, they have successfully auditioned for the Tunnel Trusts Awards Scheme, which supports young artists. The scheme is supporting six concerts in Scotland that the quartet will be doing in November 2022. For more information, visit Bone-afide’s WEBSITE .
RSM Launch The Philip and Ursula Jones Fund The Royal Society of Musicians is launching a new fund to provide ‘vital support to brass musicians across the UK whose lives have been affected by accident, illness, stress or anxiety.’ The Philip and Ursula Jones Fund has launched this year, the 70th Anniversary of the founding of the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. More information about the fund or the work of The Royal Society of Musicians can be found by emailing enquiries@rsmgb. org or by visiting the RSM’s WEBSITE .
