Biography

Richard Brown Biography 
Richard Brown is the Principal Trombone of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in Manchester. 
He was born in Accrington, Lancashire in 1977. Inspired by the school brass trio playing ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ in a school assembly, he took up the euphonium at Peel Park Primary School. At the age of 9 he joined Blackburn and Darwen Junior Band after winning a number of local solo prizes. Driven by a real love for music, Richard pursued his dream to be involved in the world of music. 19 years later, Richard graduated from the RNCM with distinction for both the Masters of Music and PG Diploma Performance Degrees, in 1999 the Royal Academy of Music in London with a Bachelor of Music Degree and in 1995 - Chethams School of Music in Manchester with the Orchestral Prize where he began to play the trombone.
Richard was taught the trombone by Andrew Berryman, John Iveson, Ian Bousfield, Christopher Houlding and the euphonium by Bill Millar. Taking him all over the globe, Richard has played in the West Kazakhstan Philharmonic in Astana, Kazakhstan in a performance of 'TLEP' by Karl Jenkins. Shortly after returning he was invited to appear as soloist with the Cramer Ensemble at the International Trombone Festival in Birmingham in the second British performance of Time Line Gary Carpenter. He has played an active role as principal trombone in the National Festival Orchestra in the Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton.
Whilst studying, Richard gained the PPRNCM soloist diploma which led to concerto appearances with the college Orchestras, Wind and Brass Bands whilst giving Premieres performances of the ‘Sierra’ Concerto at BASBWE and Time Line by Gary Carpenter at the recent British Trombone Society meeting at Chethams School of Music. He has also worked with composers from the colleges in developing new solo repertoire for the trombone including two pieces for unaccompanied trombone by Graeme Hopson, ‘Flat Footed Former Flyer’ - by Ailis ni Rian, and a performance of the Jan Sandstrom - Motorbike Odyssey - 'Speed Freak' - constructed by Andrew Berryman. 'Speed Freak' was extremely well received at the Llanidloes Music Society, the RNCM, and at the Swaledale Music Festival in North Yorks. Richard also premiered six new works for the ‘BLAST’ trombone quartet written for and performed at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival incorporating composers from North America and the Royal Academy of Music. 
Richard has travelled around the world on cruise ships as a solo recitalist/entertainer which has involved a number of performances on board the Caronia and QE2 in particular an excursion up the River Amazon in Brazil, featuring the Bluebells of Scotland and vertically challenged in Atlantic crossings in most interesting weather conditions!
He has won a number of prizes including the Yamaha Brass Quintet competition, a major scholarship to represent the English Speaking Union at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, The Charles Leggett Musicians Benevolent Fund Trombone Award and Solo Prizes for the Southern Counties Brass Band Championships. He won the Lancashire and Yorkshire Brass Band Championships Area Competition as Principal Trombone with Leyland and Grimethorpe Brass Bands with whom he won the National Finals in 2006 and 2007.
Richard has worked as a freelance orchestral player with the BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Opera North, Halle Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, Manchester Camerata, Northern Chamber Orchestra,Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the Liverpool Sinfonia. He has trialled with the BBC Concert and the Halle Orchestras where under Sir Mark Elder, he gained most of his orchestral experience. 
Since returning to the North West in 2002, Richard has enjoyed performing on various CD and BBC Radio 2 recordings with some of the country’s finest brass bands including Black Dyke Mills, Leyland, YBS, Faireys, and spent four years as the principal trombone of the world famous band from the film 'Brassed Off' the Grimethorpe Colliery  Band. At Grimethorpe he made a solo recording of ‘What Kind of Fool Am I’ – Sammy Davis Junior on the bands CD label as well as unbeknown to himself was featured on a DVD playing 'Georgia on my Mind' - Hoagy Carmichael at the Sage centre at Gateshead.  
Richard is a lover of piano music and ambition is to be able to play most of the wonderful piano repertoire before he runs out of trombone pieces to play! He also enjoys writing songs and develops his own compositional ideas at the piano coming from an ancestory of pianists who played and lived in Buxton, most notably for their musical work at the Opera House and the Pavillion Gardens.