Discover the Tuba with Classic FM

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John Whitener with his cimbasso backstage at the Royal Albert Hall

Meet the cimbasso, the epic brass contraption heard in ‘Inception’ and ‘Call of Duty’

Hans Nickel and the WDR Symphony Orchestra

Jaw-droppingly nimble soloist plays virtuosic violin Czardas... on the tuba?

Videos

Seven students age 16-18 have been left without their musical instruments for 25 days

‘How is this okay?’ – outrage as seven music students’ brass instruments lost by Lufthansa

The UK experienced its highest ever temperatures on record

How do extreme temperatures affect our musical instruments?

COVID-19 patient serenades hospital staff in Utah with violin

Intubated COVID-19 patient plays violin for medical staff to say a musical ‘thank you’

News & Features

US orchestra study finds trumpet ‘riskiest’ instrument for spreading COVID-19

US orchestra study finds trumpet ‘riskiest’ instrument for spreading COVID-19

Coronavirus

Matt Marzano sustains a note for five minutes using circular breathing

‘Mind-blowing’ tuba player holds a five-minute note using circular breathing

Videos

Pictured: Sarah and Simon Jacobs

Newly-wed couple distraught after ‘sentimental’ tuba stolen from car

I refuse to count this

16 confessions of a brass player that will make you say ‘same’

Paganini tuba

Watch this guy play some virtuosic Paganini on TUBA and make it look easy

Paganini

dad text tuba

This dad accidentally texted using voice recognition while playing the TUBA

Game of Thrones low bass cover

23 low brass playing the Game of Thrones theme is monumentally epic

Discover other brass

Trumpet rental letter

Son finds touching note sent to his struggling mother ‘forgiving trumpet debt’

English trumpeter Alison Balsom plays in Cologne’s philharmonic hall

10 most spectacular pieces of trumpet music

Paul McCartney asked an English trumpeter to play a painfully high piccolo trumpet solo for ‘Penny Lane’

When Paul McCartney asked an English trumpeter to play the painfully high ‘Penny Lane’ piccolo trumpet solo

The top 10 best pieces of music by Haydn.

10 greatest pieces of classical music by Haydn

Haydn

Trumpeter creates mesmerising sound wave visualisation using fire

Trumpeter uses actual fire to create mesmerising soundwave visualisation

Videos

Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays Elgar Cello Concerto; Alison Balsom plays Haydn Trumpet Concerto; Anne-Sophie Mutter plays Williams Violin Concerto No.2

The 20 greatest concertos in classical music

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Trumpeter Matilda Lloyd performs a Puccini aria in a beautiful stairwell acoustic.

Trumpeter finds extraordinary church stairwell acoustic, plays opera’s greatest tune

Puccini

Bugler sounds the Last Post

What is The Last Post and why is it played on Remembrance Day?

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Alison Balsom is an award-winning trumpet soloist

‘To diminish music in education is a really big mistake’ – star trumpeter Alison Balsom

Alison Balsom

John Blanke, Trumpet

Meet John Blanke, Henry VIII’s highly favoured trumpeter and the face of Black Tudor England

Alison Balsom reveals her Top 5 Trumpet Concertos of all time

Star trumpeter Alison Balsom reveals the top five trumpet concertos of all time

Alison Balsom

A Ukrainian musician plays the National Anthem in a metro station being used as a bomb shelter

Ukrainian trumpeter’s solo national anthem echoes through underground shelter

Videos

The astounding moment a virtuoso played three trumpets at once

The moment an incredible Swedish brass virtuoso played three trumpets at once

Trumpeter Alison Balsom takes part in landmark Covid-19 study for musicians

Covid study with trumpeter Alison Balsom reveals brass-playing is safer than talking

Alison Balsom

This trumpeter’s ‘Star Wars’ rendition in a deserted stairwell will give you goosebumps

This trumpeter’s ‘Star Wars’ fanfare in a deserted stairwell will give you goosebumps

Trumpet plastic bottle mute

These trumpeters used plastic bottles as mutes, because… conductor said so

Latest on Classic FM

Christopher Macchio will sing at the Inauguration.

Who is Christopher Macchio, the operatic tenor singing the national anthem at the US inauguration?
Yo-Yo Ma and Marion Cotillard in Notre Dame

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and French actor Marion Cotillard perform an intensely mystical duet

Yo-Yo Ma

The Lost Music of Auschwitz

Hear haunting music composed at Auschwitz for the first time in 80 years

The greatest opera singers of all time

25 best opera singers of all time

Sir Simon Rattle.

When Simon Rattle raised the roof of a brand-new Symphony Hall with unforgettable Mahler

Simon Rattle

Arnold Schoenberg’s archive has been destroyed by the LA fires, including photographs, letters, and over 100,000 scores.

Over 100,000 Arnold Schoenberg scores destroyed by LA fires in ‘profound cultural blow’

Ruth Slenczynska

100-year-old piano virtuoso Ruth Slenczynska is the last surviving pupil of Sergei Rachmaninov

Rachmaninov

Mohand Al Ashram, a Palestinian singer and Oud player, sits in front of a small classroom of children.

Palestinian music teacher uses drone sounds to teach school children in haunting video

Videos

Gustavo Dudamel, the Musical Director of the LA Philharmonic Orchestra.

LA Philharmonic forced to cancel concerts due to wildfires

LA Phil

Listen to the Classic FM Hall of Fame countdown live, 9am-9pm across the Easter weekend.

Vote for your favourite classical music in the Classic FM Hall of Fame 2025

Classic FM Hall of Fame

Latest instrument features

Is Timothée Chalamet really singing and playing in new Bob Dylan biopic?

Is Timothée Chalamet really singing and playing in new Bob Dylan biopic?

Ray Eveleigh, at the piano

88-year-old man passes Grade 8 piano after 67-year break

Novak Djokovic celebrates his Wimbledon win with a violin gesture

Why does Novak Djokovic play his racket like a violin when he wins?

Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason forced to cancel sold-out concert after Air Canada deny boarding with cello

Kanneh-Mason duo forced to cancel sold-out concert after Air Canada deny boarding with cello

Sheku Kanneh-Mason

Jacqueline du Pre, who brought the Concerto to prominence in her breakthrough recording with John Barbirolli and the LSO in 1965.

What’s the history of Elgar’s Cello Concerto – the work with a disastrous premiere?

Elgar

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The 15 greatest symphonies of all time

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The 4 eras of classical music: a quick guide

A young Marin Alsop, Sir Simon Rattle, and Seiji Ozawa conduct their respective orchestras.

The 25 greatest conductors of all time

Hildegard von Bingen, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Edward Elgar among the greatest composers in classical music history.

The 30 greatest classical music composers of all time

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