Thomas Gansch (born 31 December 1975 in St. Pölten) is a well-known Vienna-based Austrian trumpet player. He began his studies at Vienna music school at the age of 15. In 1992 the brass septet Mnozil Brass was founded, in which he has since played first trumpet. In 1999 he was invited to the

Vienna Art Orchestra The Vienna Art Orchestra was a European jazz group based in Vienna, Austria. Organized at different times as either a big band or as a smaller combo, it was regarded as one of the leading European jazz ensembles and was an official cultural amba ...

, a renowned European

Big Band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

. Later, he founded his own "little big band", Gansch & Roses. Thomas Gansch performs on an unusual looking

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

of his own design, commonly referred to as the ''"Gansch Horn"'', a rotary-valve trumpet (commonly seen in European orchestras) on which the valve section has been reconfigured so that the player holds the instrument in the same orientation as a piston-valve trumpet (commonly seen in jazz bands). The instrument is made by the Austrian manufacturer Schagerl. Gansch uses this with a Bach 3B megatone trumpet mouthpiece.Anon.
Das "Gansch-Horn" zum Fünfzigsten
(Archive from 10 December 2008, accessed 15 February 2015).

Family

He grew up in a musical family: * His father Johann Gansch was a renowned Austrian composer and pedagogue for brass music instruments. He was called the "marching king". * His older brother Hans Gansch (born 1953) is a trumpet soloist and professor of trumpet studies at the Salzburg

Mozarteum Mozarteum University Salzburg ( German: ''Universität Mozarteum Salzburg'') is one of three affiliated but separate (it is actually a state university) entities under the "Mozarteum" name in Salzburg municipality; the International Mozarteu ...

, and was principal trumpeter in the

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Vienna Philharmonic (VPO; ) is an orchestra that was founded in 1842 and is considered to be one of the finest in the world. The Vienna Philharmonic is based at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria. Its members are selected from the orchestra of ...

from 1982 to 1996.

References

Austrian trumpeters Male trumpeters People from Sankt Pölten Musicians from Lower Austria 1975 births Living people 20th-century trumpeters 21st-century trumpeters 20th-century Austrian male musicians 21st-century Austrian male musicians Vienna Art Orchestra members {{trumpeter-stub