For those who are interested...

Biography: Peter Medland A.T.C.L. M.A. (Cantab)

Peter started playing the cornet in 1987 with a junior brass band in Swindon under the instruction of Fran Cowley. He also took lessons with Fran at school, and took up the trumpet alongside the cornet. He quickly progressed through the U.K. Associated Board Exams, achieving a merit in grade 8 at the age of 12 (only a merit - because no-one told him the exam included transposition!).

Joining the Wiltshire Youth Orchestra in 1992, Peter learnt the ins and outs of orchestral trumpet playing under the watchful eye of Malcolm Binney. He stayed with the Wiltshire Youth Orchestra for 6 years and moved up the ranks to the 1st trumpet seat. W.Y.O. covered a wide range of very challenging repertoire including Wagner's Ring Cycle and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, once playing to an audience of over 1000 people. Peter also played with a number of other national orchestras and toured Italy as a soloist performing the Arutjunjan trumpet concerto with the Salisbury Youth Orchestra. During this time he was taking lessons with Gavin Wells at Cheltenham College, covering a wide range of repertoire from Baroque through to modern music. Peter developed a taste for jazz, blues and soul. He played with jazz groups in and out of school began to learn to improvise.

At the age of 17 Peter was awarded a performance diploma (A.T.C.L.) from the Trinity College of Music, London. However, he decided to go to University, rather than music college, as he had good academic results too. Peter studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University, and achieved a 1st class degree (B.A. Hons Cantab) in 2002. Whilst at Cambridge Peter played an active role in the music scene. He was principal trumpet of the university 1st orchestra and lead trumpet of the jazz orchestra. His taste in music was constantly expanding. Peter deejayed hip hop and drum and bass in bars and clubs around Cambridge.

After leaving Cambridge he traveled around Europe and settled for a while in the Basque country in Spain, where he taught English and surfed, and played in a Basque pop-rock group, "Frida Pipol" (visit the listen page to hear samples)

Since leaving Spain, Peter has concentrated on trumpet playing and sound recording. He has played in many concerts with orchestras, bands and as a soloist. Peter is now studying "music and sound recording" at Surrey University (The Tonmeister) course.