Between 1980 and 2000 the distinguished British trumpet player Philip Jones was a regular adviser and guest of the Lucerne Conservatoire where I had been the Principal from 1987 onwards. With his critical ideas and his brass workshops and concerts he enriched the life of the brass department in a decisive way.

In 1998, at the end of one of his wonderfully lively concerts in which some of his own “Philip Jones Brass Tentet” repertoire had been performed, he said to me half jokingly “My program...