Outstanding people: Willy Brandt

Willy Brandt (his Russian name is Vasily Georgevich Brandt) is the founder of Wind Department of Saratov Conservatoire. It was Serge Rachmaninov who recommended to invite him to Saratov Conservatoire as a Professor. Before moving to Saratov, Brandt was a Professor of Moscow Conservatory and the trumpeter-solo of the Bolshoi Theater symphony orchestra.
The school of wind instruments performing was just being created in Russia in late XIX – early XX, that’s why positions of conservatory professors and orchestra members were usually occupied by foreigners. Brandt came to Russia from a small German town of Koburg. By that time, he had already been highly appreciated by professionals, who understood that young Willy Brandt was a future star of the world stage.
P. Lyamin, one of Brandt’s students, wrote: «He was unequaled among soloists of the Bolshoi Theater symphony orchestra with his sound force and beauty, lyric and dramatic cantilena. His production of sound impressed with its wide range: sparkling upper sounds, a velvet, rich mezzo-voce, a deep baritone lower register. His solos were admired and highly appreciated by the whole orchestra, especially by the group of trumpeters and cornet-a-pistonists. His passionate culminations, pathetic expression and poetic phrasing were unforgettable».
Teaching methods of Brandt were strict. He loved his students like father, but required them to be accurate, systematic and diligent. He never spared time to repeat the techniques students had already learned. He worked with students paying no attention to time and stayed in Conservatoire after lessons for personal practice.  
Vasily Georgevich told his students: «You should play scales every day, they are our daily bread!» After summer vacations he could scold students who came to the first lesson out of shape «How wild you are!» Brandt often showed students the way they should play. He just put a mouthpiece into any trumpet and impressed them with master skills, noble timbre and extraordinary contrasts from pp to ff, modestly adding after that: «Well, that’s about it». At his lessons he explained how to breathe, paying special attention to diaphragm, and how to play a certain passage, etude or exercise.
Brandt was sure that the most important of sound quality was a noble timbre and he tried hard to help students find it. For that he recommended not to get carried away with overly high notes, to practice double and triple staccato at the end of their lesson for no more than 10 or 15 minutes per day and then play slow melodies in the middle register and «bass notes» (pedal sounds).
Willy Brandt was a wonderful person, smart, sensitive, kind, neat, with a good sense of humor. Nowadays professors of Wind instruments Department continue education of young performers started by him. We kindly invite you to join our friendly musical family and study under the Willy Brandt’s educational system!