Composers have been writing music for the group of instruments we call an orchestra for the last four centuries. Endlessly adaptable and always evolving, an orchestra can be made up of 20 players or ...

Earlier this month at the Defend DACA protest in downtown Oakland, Brass Liberation Orchestra marched among the crowd like pied pipers of the resistance, drawing passersby into the procession with ...

Use the tabs below to find out about each section of the orchestra, watch video clips, and read interviews with musicians. The french horn (or horn for short) consists of a very long brass tube, which ...

I failed at the saxophone so I don’t need the 6 easiest brass instruments to play in a band. But maybe you do. Maybe you, unlike me, did not fail at saxophone. Maybe you will pass or even succeed!

When mellow cellos harmonized the “Baby Shark” theme, giggles of surprise and recognition rippled across the concert hall. When the bold trombone section grooved along on Neil Diamond’s “Sweet ...

Few contest that a centuries-old violin will be more coveted than its newer counterparts, assuming it was well-made to begin with. That’s how luthiers like Stradivari and Guarneri have become ...

Orchestras began tuning to the oboe, in part, because its sound was more penetrating in a performance setting than gut strings. There were also fewer oboes than violins, and in the earliest orchestras ...

The Symphony for a Broken Orchestra installation of broken instruments at Temple Contemporary (courtesy Robert Blackson) The School District of Philadelphia has over 1,000 broken musical instruments, ...

“You might think it looks more like a space heater than it does an instrument,” said brass maestro John Whitener, of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO). He’s describing the cimbasso – an ...

Use the tabs below to find out about each section of the orchestra, watch video clips, and read interviews with musicians. This family needs no fanfare! Brass intruments can fit in anywhere: ...

Use the tabs below to find out about each section of the orchestra, watch video clips, and read interviews with musicians. The trumpet is the highest brass instrument. It is made from a brass tube ...