John Jermy

John was born in Ipswich and began playing the Cornet at the age of twelve under the supervision of Chas Pelling. During school John was introduced to many styles of music especially Jazz, which was drummed into him by Chas and Adrian "Slim" Hopgood. It was during this time he began to arrange music. When he was 15 he changed teacher to be taught by George Reynolds.
After school he went to study at the Colchester Institute School of Music under George Reynolds and Michael Clack. During that time he performed many types of different music from small jazz groups to large brass ensembles as well as many orchestral concerts both at the college and outside. In this time he played in Occasional Brass. This was the first brass quintet he enjoyed playing in. The group were forced to play at all college official functions, which meant that lots of bottles of Champagne and pineapples were acquired by the group. As well as fruit and alcohol stealing they were fortunate to work with William Mathias (Summer Dances) and Alan Bullard (Essay for Brass Quintet) on their own works.
From the age of 16, John was also a member of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain working under the direction of James Watson, Richard Evans, James Scott, Elgar Howarth, Roy Newsome and Sir Charles Groves. This also led to performances at The Royal Albert Hall (in the proms), The Barbican, The Royal Festival Hall, The Queen Elizabeth Hall and many recordings on radio and television. He's also been a member of the Essex Youth Orchestra Brass Ensemble and became a founder member of the Anglia Brass Academy as well as playing in Suffolk Youth Orchestra. He was also a member of The Clacton-On-Sea Co-operative band, holding both Soprano cornet and Principal cornet chairs in the 8 years he was there.
Since leaving college John has worked as a Peripatetic brass teacher in both the private sector and now for the Suffolk County Music Service as well as being sought after by many different ensembles for his trumpet playing and arranging skills. Very often you will hear him in the local Pit orchestras for many Amateur Dramatic Musicals and with the Ipswich Musicians Union Big Band as well as being the director of the West Suffolk Youth Jazz Orchestra. He has been a Concerto soloist with the Colchester Orchestra, The Wolsey Orchestra, Lavenham Sinfonia and The Colne Philharmonic Orchestra and will be performing the Shostakovitch Concerto for Piano, Trumpet & Strings with John Stafford and Lavenham Sinfonia on July 4th 2010.
At the time of writing this he has arranged over 350 pieces of music for brass quintet and other ensembles, but does has a life (he's just very quick!).