Brass'N'Bones 2027

Welcome to the beautiful setting of All Saints Church, Ryde, Isle of Wight for a concert of Brass Music featuring the Vectis Brass Band with special guests The Cory Band Trombone Quartet (Brett Baker, Reuben Jenkins, Kevin Lea, & Andrew Williams), Jon Stokes (Professor of Jazz Trombone, Royal College of Music), Emily White (Professor of Sackbut at the Guidhall School of Music & Drama, London), and Sackbut Frenzy.Our Hosts:Vectis Brass
Vectis Brass Band is a warm and welcoming community traditional brass band based in Ryde. Originally formed in 1947 out of the Air Training Corps, the ensemble has spent eighty years entertaining island residents and visitors alike. The band performed for many years as Ryde Concert Band and enjoyed much contest success in the 1970s and 1980s under the baton of band president Derek Broadbent. With a deeply rooted community ethos, the band is dedicated to keeping music accessible, offering free tuition to brass players of all ages and backgrounds. Today, the band enjoys a busy programme of concert engagements at a variety of venues across the Island, entertaining with brass band classics, marches, jazz and music from film and TV.Introducing our Guests:The Cory Band Trombone Quartet
In 1895, the Ton Temperance Band was invited to play at the official opening of Gelli Colliery Library in Ystrad. Sir Clifford Cory, the highly influential son of John Cory, performed the ceremony. He was so impressed by the standard of the bands performance that he offered to provide financial assistance and provide suitable employment to enable the band to engage a first-class conductor.
The Ton Temperance Band changed its name to reflect the generous financial assistance from Sir Clifford Cory and his family business, Cory Brothers. Consequently, from 1895, the Band became known as Cory Workmens Band.
Brett Baker joined the Cory Band in November 2024 and by the middle of 2025 had set up a trombone ensemble and trombone quartet.
So far the group has played at a number of British Trombone Society events around the UK and is looking to perform at some of the international festivals in the future.
The current quartet is make up of Brett Baker, Reuben Jenkins, Gareth Robinson and Andrew Williams.Jon Stokes (Tenor Trombone/Bass Trombone/Euphonium/Baritone)
Jon is a UK-based trombonist working across jazz, big band, film, TV, and theatre. Hes played with artists such as Tony Bennett and Quincy Jones, and can be heard on major film soundtracks and West End shows.
Jon moved to London in 2001 to study with Mike Hext and Richard Edwards at the Royal College of Music. Before this, Jon was taught by the inspirational Mike Sallis in Cheltenham. Mike encouraged him to listen and perform as much as possible. So Jon was already aware of London Brass and the exceptional musicianship of their resident jazz trombonist, Richard Edwards. Jon is now hugely proud to be continuing Richards legacy as the newest member of London Brass.Since graduating from the RCM Jon has firmly established himself as one of the UKs top trombone players. He has performed with Tony Bennett, Quincy Jones, and Seth MacFarlane to name just a few. He is a member of the groundbreaking 'Heritage Orchestra', who recently appeared at Londons Royal Albert Hall with Brit Award winner RAYE, and three-time Grammy Award winner Dua Lipa. He has appeared with Jules Buckley and his Orchestra at the BBC Proms and regularly appears with John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London.
Alongside these many commitments, Jon is a regular on film and TV sessions, including soundtracks for Wicked and Mission Impossible. He is also prolific in Londons West End, having performed in shows such as Gypsy, Singing in the Rain and Dreamgirls.
Despite a busy performance schedule, Jon still finds time to dedicate himself to education. He is the Jazz Trombone Professor at the Royal College of Music and gives lessons, masterclasses and workshops all over the UK.Emily White
Emily White is a freelance musician specialising in historical performance. She brought out her first solo disc A Cry Was Heard with Deux-Elles record label in 2022, and her second: Made Human, was released in 2024. Her third, featuring new music written for her on the sackbut will be released in 2027. She launched her YouTube Channel in 2020, and in 2024 was invited to present an episode of Inside Music on BBC Radio 3, sharing her insights into music she loves with listeners.She was an artist at The Slide Factory, Rotterdam, 2024 giving a solo recital D'Or Galons. She is a member of The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble whos 16 discs include Classic FM disc of the month, BBC Choice, several Gramophone Awards and Diapason dOr winners. She also plays principal regularly for Il Giardino Armonico in Italy, playing on the Diapason DOr Disc of the Year La Morte della Ragione. She works with Les Talens Lyriques in France, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, La Fonte Musica, Concerto Scirocco, and the 'crack British ensemble (The Observer) In Echo. She loves the freedom that can be found in early music performance and contemporary music. Her trio Pandora's Box with John Kenny and Miguel Sevilliano Tantos has toured their improvisatory take on contemporary and early music to Portugal, Spain, Ireland, UK and USA.John Kenny wrote his ground-breaking Sonata Secret House featuring multiphonics in the female vocal range for Emily. She released a disc of it with Carnyx and Co in 2010 and a video in 2020 on her YouTube channel. Emily is very interested in new music for early instruments and Alex Paxton, (winner of the Paul Hindemith Prize and Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation prize for composition) wrote Apocalypse Flower for unaccompanied sackbut for Emily and she premiered it at The British Trombone Festival in 2024 and recorded it with Deux-Elles in 2026.She has also had works written for her by Rachel Stott, Peter McCarthy, Peter Cowdrey,
Ercole Nisini and David Ward and has written several pieces herself. Simon Proctor
recently completed a sackbut concerto he wrote for her and she premiered with The
Orchestra of St John in 2025.Emily is professor of sackbut and trombone at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, teaches trombone and sackbut at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and teaches trombone at Wells Cathedral School. She was guest sackbut teacher at Schola Cantorum Basillensis in 2023, was awarded an ARAM, The British Trombone Society Sheila Tracey Award for female trombonist who have had an impact, and is an affiliated artist with Conn-Selmer.Sackbut Frenzy
Sackbut Frenzy comprises current and recent graduates from Emily's Sackbut students. They have given fifteen concerts over the years in St Martins Church, North Nibley and in London, and she is proud that students who played in Sackbut Frenzy have gone on to work professionally with The Orchestra of The Age of Enlightenment, Il Giardino Armonico, Archangelo, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Solomons Knot, His Majesties Sagbuts and Cornettes, The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, Instruments of Time and Truth, In Echo and I Fagiolini.
A Cry Was Heard is a CD released by Sackbut Frenzy in 2022 and they were awarded Continuo Foundation funding for the programme From The Mountains that included settings of poetry by Brian Nisbet and a commission from the Venetian composer Justine Rapaccioli. They joined Emily in an album Apocalypse Flower of contemporary music for sackbut recorded with deux Elles in this year, that will be released in 2027.Sackbut Frenzy has always enjoyed innovative programming, looking at new music, new ideas and new ways of playing this five hundred-year-old instrument. Programmes have featured female composers from the 1600 and 1700's; new pieces written for sackbut by Ng Yu Hng and Martin Gaughan Peter McCarthy and Justine Rapaccioli.Sackbut Frenzy has donated the profits from its concerts in St Martins and over the years has raised thousands of pounds for St Martins, Gloucestershire, Medicines Sans Frontiers, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, Huntly Summer School, and Help Musicians UK.