John Rudkin

Born in Liverpool and then relocated with his family to the North East in 1986, the opportunity arose to learn the cornet at the age of nine, first through the peripatetic school services and then the Barnard Castle Youth and Senior bands. Playing alongside his Father on trombone gave John invaluable solo and small group experience performing on the North East music festival circuit. He progressed within the ranks of Durham Palatine and Regional bands, finally ending up as Principal Cornet with the Durham County Wind Ensemble.



John studied at The University of Huddersfield from receiving tuition from such leading musicians as Sandy Smith, Christopher Fox, John Bryan, Phillip McCann and Professor George Pratt.

 

John has been a member of Grimethorpe Colliery RJB, Brighouse & Rastrick, Whitburn and Hepworth Bands and has deputized with Black Dyke and Yorkshire Building Society bands amongst others. John has been involved in CD, BBC TV and radio broadcasts working with artists such as Lesley Garrett, Christian Lindberg, Elgar Howarth, Major Peter Parkes, Andreas Sporri, Peter Bassano, Bram Gay, Peter Robinson, Richard Edwards, John Barclay and Chris Batchelor and at venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Queens Hall Edinburgh, Royal College of Music, Westminster Abbey, Regent Hall, BBC Wood Lane, BBC Manchester, Air Lyndhurst, Symphony Hall Birmingham and the Niedersachsische Musiktage, Lower Saxony.

John has recently been on tour with BBBC for their 2008 and 2007 concert programmes. The 31-member Brass Band of Battle Creek has been described as an All-Star band of the brass and percussion world's elite, attracting great musicians from around the United States and Europe to play two annual concerts in Battle Creek as well as a limited number of other engagements in hand-picked locations in the U.S. and abroad. Though rooted in the British brass band tradition characterized by larger ensembles of strictly brass and percussion, (no reed instruments or strings) the BBBC also weaves in American elements such as jazz improvisation, pops and swing, resulting in a hybrid style that makes the BBBC truly unique among brass bands.