Jeremy West

Biography

Since the mid 1970s Jeremy West has been an evangelist for the 17th century cornett, striving, as he has, to help with its reestablishment as a recognised and accepted virtuoso and ensemble instrument. He now has more than thirty-five years of top class playing experience in many of Europe's leading renaissance and early baroque ensembles, and has on several occasions been acclaimed a “pioneer” of his instrument. He is a founder member of the well-established and much-loved ensemble His Majesty's Sagbutts & Cornetts and is Principal Wind Player with the Gabrieli Consort and Players for their earlier repertoire. He has more than 60 recordings to his credit.

In addition to his playing career, since 1991 Jeremy has carried on the pioneering instrument-making work of the late Christopher Monk. The workshops are devoted to the research, development, reproduction and world-wide distribution of all instruments in the cornett and serpent families. Examples of the workshop’s output, and in particular the extraordinarily popular resin cornett an instrument which has inspired and enabled the majority of today’s cornett players may be found from New York to New Zealand, Scandinavia to South America.

In 1995 Jeremy wrote How to play the Cornett with Susan J. Smith (University of Cambridge). This is the first comprehensive tutor, written in modern times, for cornett players of all levels, and to date it has sold more than 1000 copies worldwide.

In his spare time Jeremy plays for the City of Cambridge Brass Band (Eb Horn -another overlooked brass instrument about which he is passionate), amidst spells of skiing and tractor driving.