Album Notes

Dr. Kenneth Austin has had a unique trumpet career, including performances at the Alaska Festival of Music, onboard a floating stage in New York's East River, and for the Canadian Country Music Awards. The former principal trumpet of the National Symphony Orchestra of Bogota, Colombia, Austin has performed with the Springfield Symphony (Mass), Indianapolis Symphony, Thunder Bay Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, and is currently principal trumpet of the Southwest Symphony and New Philharmonic in Chicago. He has played solo E-flat cornet with the Yankee Brass of New England for eight years and B-flat cornet with the Great Western Rocky Mountain Brass Band for nine years. He holds a Master of Music from Yale University and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the American Conservatory of Music. Ken has been the Director of Instrumental Music at Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Illinois since 1991. He and his wife Lynn have three children. Those of you who know historian and conductor Paul Maybery are aware that he loves to talk about the history of American brass bands. In the summer of 2004 while Paul and I were touring with the Yankee Brass, he suggested that I put together a CD of historical cornet music from the mid-nineteenth century-the golden era of the E-flat cornet-performed on a period instrument. The Yankee Brass performs on antiques from this period, so I already had some experience playing on these cantankerous cornets. We discussed the idea-while eating lobster sandwiches in Maine-and Paul's passion and enthusiasm soon rubbed off. I decided to tackle the project.
Paul sent me his unpublished gem, "The Yankee Olio," a collection of fifty E-flat cornet solos with piano accompaniment. This collection represents twenty years of research by Maybery, compiled and arranged from fragments of original brass band music, museum collections, and the libraries of local town brass bands. I selected representative pieces from the mid-nineteenth century for this CD, choosing popular tunes, serenades, opera gems, quick steps, concert solos, and variations that would display the versatility and capabilities of the E-flat bugle and cornet.