Latest News
Maurice Murphy receives ITG Award
Maurice Murphy has been awarded the 2008 International Trumpet Guild Honorary Award for outstanding contributions to the art of trumpet playing. Maurice has only recently retired after 30 years as principal trumpet of the London Symphony Orchestra, having held positions previously as solo cornet of the world famous Black Dyke Mills Band and principal trumpet of the BBC Northern Orchestra.
Maurice's instantly recognisable sound can be heard on many film soundtracks, including Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Alien, Harry Potter, Braveheart, Gladiator, and many James Bond films. His has just recorded the music for the recently released Mummy film. The Maurice Murphy trumpet mouthpieces in the Denis Wick range come in a variety of symphonic sizes from the MM1C to the MM4C, and all feature a distinctive backbore based on the old Tottle designs, excellent rims and cups, and a beautiful finish.
Posted 5th August 2008
Lucerne Chamber Brass recently visited England on tour for a highly successful series of concerts. Their virtuoso tuba player Daniel Schädeli (who is also principal tuba of the Berne Symphony Orchestra) plays a gold Denis Wick 2SL tuba mouthpiece and a DW5518 tuba mute in his Yamaha F tuba. He is pictured here at the Denis Wick warehouse.
The Lucerne Chamber Brass is on www.chamberbrass.ch
Posted 5th August 2008
Bella Tromba are an exciting and versatile new trumpet quartet, who are very active doing both concerts and educational work. Their need for a wide range of mutes, which all balance each other in tone and volume, has attracted them to using Denis Wick mutes, which they now use exclusively. They are pictured here at the Denis Wick warehouse; from l to r Nicole Lyons, Clare Helsdon, Brian Miller (General Manager of Denis Wick Products), Victoria Curran and Jo Harris. They are having many new works written for them, and will be using their mutes in a lot of innovative repertoire.
Visit their website www.bellatromba.co.uk to find out if they are playing near you, and to see their latest news.
Posted 5th August 2008
Steve Gluzband is a top New York trumpet/cornet player who has played on hundreds of (mostly Latin) albums, including work with Ray Baretto, Celia Cruz, Mark Anthony and many more. He has recorded with Talking Heads (the album went platinum) and with Scotland's Hue and Cry. Steve uses a Denis Wick 3B cornet mouthpiece to achieve his singing and flexible tone on the cornet. Visit his MySpace page at http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=112294120
Posted 3rd July 2008
The Newark Brass Festival 2009 will take place on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 January 2009 and is a brass competition for players aged 11 to 30 on 1st October 2008. Competitors will be divided into three groups determined by grade. Denis Wick is patron of the Festival and will be donating prizes in the form of products from his company. The adjudicators for the competition will be Paul Archibald (trumpet), Nigel Black (horn), John Kenny (trombone) and Stephen Wick (tuba).
The Royal College of Music Brass Ensemble will be taking a workshop for local brass players. The workshop's aim is to give young students the chance to play with, and be tutored by some of this country's finest young musicians . The ensemble will also be performing in the festival's gala concert. Full details about the competition are available form the Newark Brass Festival website.
Posted 7th May 2008
Denis Wick Products would like to say a big thank you to all its customers and visitors who made the Frankfurt Musikmesse such a huge success for the company. A hectic four days was taken up with meetings with leading players, with Denis Wick distributors from all over the world, and with many dealers who were there to see all the latest Denis Wick accessories. Plans are already underway for the Musikmesse in 2009 - put it in your diary for next year!
Euphonium star David Childs at the Frankfurt Musikmesse, with Stephen Wick (left) and Brian Miller (right)
Denis Wick silver mouthpieces and packaging on display at the Musikmesse
James Fong of Talent Music, Singapore, with Brian Miller and Stephen Wick
Philip Biggs of Brass Herald with Brian Miller of Denis Wick Products
Posted 30th April 2008
Ashley (George) Wall at the Royal Opera House
Ashley (George) Wall of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden has been playing his Denis Wick 2.5CC tuba mouthpiece with the Hirsbrunner CC tuba for performances at the Royal Opera House in London. George's recent performances have included four complete 'Ring' cycles in October 2007.
Wagner's 'Ring des Nibelungen' is one of the most demanding in the entire repertoire for tuba, and George's performance, which was broadcast, was a true demonstration of powerful and expressive tuba playing. He returns to the Opera House pit soon for performances of 'Sleeping Beauty' with the Royal Ballet - another great tuba part, ideally suited to the powerful combination of CC tuba and the Denis Wick 2.5CC tuba mouthpiece.
Posted 15th April 2008
The Royal Academy of Music in London was the venue for an inspiring trombone event organised by the British Trombone Society on February 24th. The highlight of the day was the visit of four of the members of wonderful trombone section of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, who gave a masterclass and also performed an evening concert. Led by Ian Bousfield, they showed exactly why this orchestra is considered by many to be the finest in the world.
Their control of dynamics and their golden tone were wonderful to hear. Ian Bousfield has long played a Denis Wick mouthpiece, and to hear him play his King 4B trombone with a gold Denis Wick 6BL makes one wonder why anybody would ever want to play anything larger! Ian will be using this equipment to play seven performances of the Nino Rota Trombone Concerto later this year, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Riccardo Muti.
Denis Wick mutes and mouthpieces were available at several retailers at the BTS day. Phil Parker's, Warwick Music, ProZone and Academy Chimes were all exhibiting products at trade stands. Denis was also there in person, conducting the massed trombones on the morning session, and being interviewed by Ian Bousfield (both of them ex LSO principal trombones) in the afternoon.
Posted 1st April 2008
Denis Wick to exhibit at Frankfurt
The growth of the Denis Wick company continues, and this year, for the first time, we will be exhibiting at Frankfurt.
The Frankfurt Musikmesse is the biggest international trade fair for musical instruments, music software and computer hardware, sheet music and accessories. More than 30,000 instruments and a huge range of accessories are displayed. During four days, all the important manufactures of the music industry will meet in Frankfurt, Germany to show their latest products. The Frankfurt Musikmesse presents an excellent overview of the industry and its products.
We are looking forward to four exciting days at Musikmesse to show our latest mutes and mouthpieces to international trade visitors. We will also be open to the public on Saturday 15th, when we would be very pleased to see any non-trade visitors!
Come join us at Musikmesse 2008
12 – 15 March 2008, 9am – 6pm
You’ll find us in Hall 1.1, Booth H11
Posted 18th February 2008
National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain
Denis Wick is very pleased to support the excellent work of the National Children’s Orchestra. This organisation brings talented children together from all over the United Kingdom to play orchestral music under the guidance of leading conductors and tutors.
The young musicians range in age from 7 up to 13 and are organised into five different orchestras according to age, and achieve amazing results in very demanding repertoire. The Main Orchestra and the Under 13's will be performing at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon on Sunday 16th December.
Photo: Tom Ashworth of the National Children's Orchestra using a Denis Wick tuba mute at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
Posted 10th December 2007
Oliver Condy, the editor of BBC Music Magazine, is learning the trumpet with the help of You, Me and a Trumpet. Follow his progress on his blog in the magazine's website at http://www.bbcmusicmagazine.com/blog.asp
Good luck to Oliver - lets hope he shows that you don't have to be ten years old to take up the trumpet, and that adults can have fun taking up instruments too!
Posted 13th November 2007
Christian Martinez visits Denis Wick Products
It was a pleasure to welcome Christian Martinez, the great French trumpet star, to Denis Wick Products. Christian already loves what we do and we are planning some special mouthpiece models for him, including a lead trumpet mouthpiece based on the popular 5E. Christian plays flugelhorn and cornet as well as trumpet, and he sounded wonderful on the Denis Wick mouthpieces. The typical Wick richness of tone combined with Christian's brilliant abilities created some unforgettable trumpet sounds that day!
We were joined by Mike Lovatt (lead trumpet on many sessions and a well-known big-band lead trumpeter) who formed an instant rapport with Christian. It was wonderful to hear these two stars playing together, and will be something all the Denis Wick staff will long remember! For more information about Christian go to http://www.paris-horns.com/
Posted 31st October 2007
Denis Wick Products at Music China, Shanghai
Music China is held annually in Shanghai in October, and is now one of the most important events of the year for the music industry. We had our own stand in the UK Pavilion, seen here with Denis Wick assistant Cindy Wang and General Manager Brian Miller. The show proved to be bigger and better than anything that we had expected. We were able to meet many of our loyal Chinese customers, and were pleased and surprised at just how well known and respected Denis Wick mutes and mouthpieces are already in China. We were very pleased to see what a great job Aria, our distributor in China are doing. They also distribute Marigaux oboes, Rico reeds and Camac harps, and it was very useful for us to have a good contact with them at the show.
There were many international buyers at the show, and, again, it was good to know the high level of awareness of our products. We look forward to very full order books in the coming months as a result of our visit.
There is a huge interest in all kinds of music in China, including classical music, especially amongst young people. It was good to meet so many very accomplished young players, including Tai Ziqiang whose 'English' name is Peter. Peter is a trombone student at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and plays a Bach 42 with a Denis Wick 5AL with a booster. We wish him and Cindy (who plays the French horn, but is studying maritime law) and all the other young players that we met good luck in their studies.
Denis Wick Products will be attending Music China again next year to develop the Chinese market still further. Look out for us also at NAMM (January 2008) and Frankfurt Musikmesse (March 2008).
~ posted by Stephen Wick
Posted 24th October 2007
Simon Morgan Recommends Wick Mouthpiece
Simon Morgan is one of the busiest and most popular horn-players in London. He plays the notoriously difficult horn part in the
London production of Disney's 'Lion King', and has also been to Hamburg to play the same production there. Simon has played a Denis
Wick 5N horn mouthpiece (DW5885-5N) ever since his student days. Like Bruno Schneider (see below), Simon plays an Engelbert Schmid
horn. The combination of a sterling silver horn and a Denis Wick mouthpiece produces an unforgettable sound! Simon was recently
playing for Shirley Bassey at the Glastonbury Festival, where she was voted the best act in the Festival.
Posted 11th October 2007
Bruno Schneider Recommends Wick Mute
Top Horn soloist Bruno Schneider recommends the Denis Wick Horn practice mute DW5530, finding it the ideal 'hotel' mute for when he
is away on solo tours. Bruno hosted the 39th I.H.S. International Horn Symposium at La Chaux-de-Fonds in July 2007, and is famous
both as an orchestral player and as an international horn soloist.
He has recently been playing with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, and you can check out his forthcoming solo performances on www.bruno-schneider.ch. Bruno's top tip is 'cover up one of the holes in the practice mute - it works even better!'. Bruno plays a beautiful horn by Engelbert Schmid http://www.corno.de/schmid.
Posted 9th October 2007
New Jazz Flugelhorn Mouthpiece
Henry Lowther, the great British jazz trumpet and flugel player, has been helping Denis Wick design a new jazz flugelhorn mouthpiece.
It is designed for the new Eclipse flugelhorn that Henry has developed, and has been widely praised as the best flugelhorn on the
market today. Henry has brought years of experience to this project and has created a mouthpiece that has a deep rich tone, but
is at the same time very flexible and versatile enough for the most wide-ranging jazz solo.
Henry Lowther is a greatly respected player whose experience includes being one of the few British musicians to play at the original Woodstock Festival in 1969 (with the Keef Hartley Band) and years of playing with the best of British jazz musicians including bands led by John Dankworth, Kenny Wheeler, Michael Gibbs, Mike Westbrook and Charlie Watts.
This new mouthpiece is currently in production and should be available soon. The planned model number is 5FLJ.
Posted 25th September 2007
We are pleased to announce that Byron Wallen is playing Denis Wick Mutes and Mouthpieces. Byron is one of the most original and talented trumpet players in the world today and has received many accolades not only for his trumpet-playing but also for his compositions. His amazingly original albums Indigo and Meeting Ground on the Twilight Jaguar label have received rave reviews; the Guardian said of Meeting Ground "The exchange of ideas and sounds makes for a subtle and unusual world-jazz collaboration, both ancient and contemporary, that draws on dub, funk and swing rhythms."
He has worked with many of the greatest figures in jazz including Jack Dejohnette, Chaka Kahn, Andrew Hill, McCoy Tyner, Guy Barker and many more. For news of Byron's latest projects go to www.byronwallen.com. His wonderful custom-made trumpet is made by Eclipse Trumpets www.eclipsetrumpets.com, which he uses with a Denis Wick Heavytop 1C and a Heavytop 3C.
Posted 14th August 2007
Thirty three year veteran of the London Symphony and one of the leading mouthpiece designers, Denis Wick visited the U.S. for planning and training meetings with North American importer, DANSR, inc. in Chicago. Denis also visited the Music For All Summer Symposium at Illinois State University in Bloomington Normal, IL where he met with the faculty and attended a DANSR/Wick sponsored concert of the Synergy Brass Quintet. Denis completed his tour by conducting a master class at the Illinois Summer Youth Music trombone camp held at the University of Illinois under the direction of Elliot Chasanov.
“It was such a pleasure to have Denis here in the states,” commented DANSR president Michael Skinner. “Not only is Denis one of the finest designers of brass mouthpieces and mutes, but he’s an extraordinary teacher. His tone development lesson using the practice mute is just as innovative as his mouthpiece designs.”
Denis Wick has been designing brass mouthpieces and mutes for over thirty years and has developed a line that includes a mouthpiece and mute for every brass instrument. His philosophy of designing mouthpieces to solve unique problems has propelled the sales of his mouthpiece and mutes to over two million mouthpieces and mutes worldwide. DANSR, inc. became the North American distributor for Denis Wick in July, 2006.
(L to R) Andy Blanco, Steve Baughman, Denis Wick, Richard Galime, Jim Metz.
Denis Wick at the ISYM Trombone Camp. Photo taken at the Music Building Auditorium at the University of Illinois.
Posted 10th August 2007
Maurice Murphy retires from LSO
Maurice Murphy has retired
after thirty years as the Principal Trumpet of the London Symphony
Orchestra. His brilliant sound is instantly recognisable from the very first chord of every Star Wars
film and can be heard on hundreds of films.
Go to the LSO Website to hear a podcast about Maurice and the LSO. He is now busier than ever as a free-lance studio player! Go to the Mouthpieces section to see descriptions of the Maurice Murphy range of Denis Wick trumpet mouthpieces.
Posted 20th July 2007
Andrew, Jane and Peter from the team who hand-make Denis Wick wooden mutes.
Denis Wick wooden mutes are hand made in the England by a secret method which creates a light but very vibrant and strong mute, ideal for capturing that European orchestral sound. The wooden mutes work especially well when a quiet but dramatic timbre is needed, so they are much used in opera and musicals, as well as symphony orchestras and bands. We are pleased to introduce new wooden mutes for Eb trumpet/cornet, Eb and Bb tubas, tenor horn and baritone. These join the already successful range of trumpet, trombone and French Horn wooden mutes.
Posted 20th July 2007
Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchester
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| Denis Wick and Low Brass Section of the Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchester |
Posted 1st May 2007
Denis Wick is pleased
to announce that Synergy Brass have become Denis Wick Artists and are busy helping to promote Denis Wick products in the U.S.A.
They are one of the finest group of musicians around and receive warm praise wherever they play for their brilliant sound and virtuoso playing. Their website can be found at www.synergyquintet.com where you can check on their busy schedule and hear musical samples.
Posted 6th February 2007
Sergio Bernal on Wick Mouthpieces
Sergio Bernal
(pictured) writes from San Jose, California, 'I would not be where I am today if it wasn't for me finding perfection in a
mouthpiece. Denis Wick is my choice for my trumpet work.' Sergio is a busy trumpet player on the Latin/Indy scene and is also
an educator. As well as playing in bands such as Firme, Lado Oriente, Xiu Xiu and Monkey he also finds time to teach, including
going back to his roots to be resident Jazz Trumpet instructor for the Alum Rock Jazz Band, one of the bands with which he
started his trumpet playing career. 'When I finally play my last note on earth, listen for me in heaven. I'll be blowing on an
angelic horn, but my mouthpiece will still be a Denis Wick.' Sergio plays a Denis Wick Trumpet 5 mouthpiece.
Posted 5th February 2007
Maurice Murphy Trumpet Mouthpieces
Maurice
Murphy (right), seen here with Star Wars composer John Williams (left) at EMI's Abbey Road Studios, is one of
the most-heard trumpet players in the world today. His scintillating solo playing has brought magic to
hundreds of today's best known films, including the Star Wars and Harry Potter films, Raiders of the
Lost Ark, Superman and many more. He has been principal trumpet of the London Symphony Orchestra for
thirty years and comes with a strong brass band background, having been solo cornet of the great Black
Dyke Mills Band. Maurice has developed his MM range of mouthpieces with Denis Wick, which help create
his unique sound. They bring a characteristic warmth of tone combined with a brilliance that projects
across an orchestra. Experience the Maurice Murphy sound today with a Denis Wick MM trumpet mouthpiece!
Posted 8th November 2006
Denis
Wick (left) and General Manager Brian Miller (right) paying a visit to the new plating works of
Steve Fox (centre), who handles the complex plating requirements for Denis Wick Mouthpieces.
The plating in gold and in silver is absolutely vital to both the appearance and 'feel' of the
mouthpiece - the lip can detect variations as small as 4 microns on a mouthpiece!
Mouthpieces are a highly specialised area of plating, and need a finish which is both good-looking and hard-wearing. There is a heavy investment in both the specialist machinery and in the precious metals - each tank for the gold-plating can contain £10,000's worth of gold in a special solution! The new works will allow Denis Wick Mouthpieces to achieve a larger throughput with even greater consistency.
Posted 12th October 2006
A Practical Aid to a Beautiful Sound
As every teacher knows, a good tone on any brass instrument needs a properly set-up embouchure;
a good teacher will spare no effort to ensure that the student's embouchure is as efficient as possible.
These days one may assume that the young player will have a reasonable instrument and a sensible mouthpiece.
To this one must add what many teachers would regard as the most important of all - good breath control.
[More]
Posted 4th August 2006
Corporate Update from Denis Wick
Six months on from the horrifying news of the Besson bankruptcy announced in December 2005, Denis Wick Products, Ltd. reports that the marketing and distribution of the world-renowned mouthpieces and mutes is now working better than any of us could have believed possible. We are settled into our new premises and the new systems are running well. Sales are up globally by almost 50%, new contracts have been negotiated and the only problems are in producing enough for the ever-increasing demand.
To that end, production staff numbers at both factories have been increased, with productivity rising steadily, although quality control is as thorough as ever. We are proud that this is one small part of British industry which is expanding! There are exciting new products in the pipeline which will emerge later this year.
Posted 5th June 2006
At Last! The Maurice Murphy Range
In 1977, my orchestra, the London Symphony needed a 1st trumpet. Howard Snell, who had served the orchestra
well as 1st trumpet and board-member - the LSO was and is self-governed and the chairman of the Board of
Directors has an almost impossible task of overseeing the running of the orchestra whilst taking an active
role as a performer. The list of chairmen who found the combination of activities so demanding that they too
often parted company with us is formidable, and included Barry Tuckwell, as well as many less well-known but
also top-ranking players. [Read full story]
Posted 1st May 2006
New Heritage Cornet
Aug 21
Tone Collars Launched
Aug 21
Maurice Murphy Award
Aug 5
Lucerne Chamber Brass
Aug 5
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