It can't be disputed that one of the great landmarks in British orchestral trumpet playing happened in 1977/78 when Maurice Murphy joined the London Symphony Orchestra.

Three of Alan's pupils journey to see their mentor from the 1970's in his 80th year today, 14th March, to a small village equidistant from Bordeaux and Toulouse, named Nerac4BR

Benchmark

But who had raised that benchmark nearly 30 years before Maurice and in fact gave up the LSO chair in 1960 and continued that standard into the 1990's?

Alan Stringer that's who, and it was he who gave us the first definitive recording of the Haydn Trumpet Concerto and more or less kept the hot seat warm at the RLPO from 1953 to 1990.

Pupils

Three of Alan's pupils journey to see their mentor from the 1970's in his 80th year today, 14th March, to a small village equidistant from Bordeaux and Toulouse, named Nerac.

Phil Lawrence, Gareth Bimson (BBCSO)& Morris Fogg (Head of Brass, Sefton) will join Alan for 4 days, while Phil will interview and talk with Alan for a splash article in 'The Brass Herald magazine'. "We have one surprise present for him," Phil told 4BR. "A close up framed photo of Alan on TV performing the Hummel in the late 1970's."