Michael Rath Trombones is a British manufacturer of retail and custom hand-made

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

s. Rath offers artist-quality and student instruments in its line of

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

, bass,

contrabass Contrabass (from it, contrabbasso) refers to several musical instruments of very low pitch—generally one octave below bass register instruments. While the term most commonly refers to the double bass (which is the bass instrument in the orchest ...

and

alto The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: ''altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In 4-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in choruses by ...

trombones. Rath Trombones was founded in 1996 by instrument technician Michael Rath, and is Britain's only trombone manufacturer. Rath's 12 craftspeople create as many as 500 trombones per year, exporting instruments through 25 distributors in North and South America, Japan, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan.

History

Company founder Michael Rath (b. 1963 in

Slough Slough () is a town and unparished area in the unitary authority of the same name in Berkshire, England, bordering west London. It lies in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4 ...

, Berkshire, England) studied musical instrument technology at Merton Technical College in South London. He finished at Merton in 1981 and for the next nine years served an apprenticeship with

Paxman Musical Instruments Paxman Musical Instruments Ltd is a British manufacturer of horns. Paxman is the instrument of choice of a number of leading British players, including Michael Thompson. Paxman was established at the turn of the twentieth century by Harry Pa ...

, a

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

-based manufacturer of (French)

horns Horns or The Horns may refer to: * Plural of Horn (instrument), a group of musical instruments all with a horn-shaped bells * The Horns (Colorado), a summit on Cheyenne Mountain * ''Horns'' (novel), a dark fantasy novel written in 2010 by Joe Hill ...

. Himself a brass player – he began on

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

at age 11 – Rath opened his own brass instrument shop in

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, specialising in repairs and customisation. His clientele grew to include professional musicians, particularly trombonists, from throughout Europe. In 1995, British jazz trombonist

Mark Nightingale Mark Daryl Nightingale (born 29 May 1967) is an English jazz trombonist, composer, and arranger. Career He began on trombone at age nine, and played in the Midland Youth Jazz Orchestra and the National Youth Jazz Orchestra in his teens. He at ...

asked Rath to create a bespoke instrument. Completed in 1996 after nearly two years of prototyping, this tenor instrument became the first Rath trombone. With tenor trombones in steady production, Michael Rath, along with technicians Andy Hutchinson and Adrian Davison, began development of a full trombone line. Hutchinson crafted bells, Davison the hands slides, and Rath did the remainder himself. Over the next decade the Rath catalogue grew to include small-bore jazz trombones, large bore symphonic instruments, bass, contrabass and alto models. Rath instruments grew increasingly popular in Europe, while less known in the U.S. Rath Trombones faced setbacks, including cash-flow problems and the increasing demands of production on what began as a three-person shop. Another blow came in 2006, when respected trombone slide specialist Adrian Davison died at the age of 28 in a motorcycle accident. Today, Rath trombones are popular with solo artists and brass band, symphony and jazz trombone sections around the world. Their reputation has been enhanced with representation at regional and international trade shows and conventions of musicians and music educators, and a growing roster of high-profile endorsing artists. A line of student-level instruments, JP/Rath Trombones, was introduced in 2014 in collaboration with UK instrument distributor John Packer, and is manufactured by Rath-trained technicians. The Rath Trombones shop is located in

Honley __NOTOC__ Honley is a large village in West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated near to Holmfirth and Huddersfield, and on the banks of the River Holme in the Holme Valley. According to the 2011 ...

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

in West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. In 2015, the shop was selected from hundreds of UK businesses for a visit by Anne, Britain's Princess Royal. Rath Trombones workshop.JPG, Michael Rath Trombones workshop, West Yorkshire

Rath sections

Ensembles that have used Rath trombones include: United Kingdom:

Central Band of the Royal Air Force The Central Band of the Royal Air Force is an RAF regular band and is part of Royal Air Force Music Services. The motto of the band is ''Aere Invicti'' (Latin for "Invincible with the Brass"). History The Central Band of the RAF was formed in ...

, Royal Military School of Music, Scots Guards, Royal Marines Band Service,

Black Dyke Band Black Dyke Band, formerly John Foster & Son Black Dyke Mills Band, is one of the oldest and best-known brass bands in the world. It originated as multiple community bands founded by John Foster at his family's textile mill in Queensbury, West ...

, Salvation Army International Staff Band,

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony ...

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an English orchestra, founded in 1893 and originally based in Bournemouth. With a remit to serve the South and South West of England, the BSO is administratively based in the adjacent town of Poole, s ...

Welsh National Opera Welsh National Opera (WNO) ( cy, Opera Cenedlaethol Cymru) is an opera company based in Cardiff, Wales; it gave its first performances in 1946. It began as a mainly amateur body and transformed into an all-professional ensemble by 1973. In its ...

Grimethorpe Colliery Band The Grimethorpe Colliery Band is a brass band, based in Grimethorpe, South Yorkshire, England. It was formed in 1917, as a leisure activity for the workers at the colliery, by members of the disbanded Cudworth Colliery Band. Along with the Blac ...

Europe:

Staatskapelle Berlin The Staatskapelle Berlin () is a German orchestra and the resident orchestra of the Berlin State Opera, Unter den Linden. The orchestra is one of the oldest in the world. Until the fall of the German Empire in 1918 the orchestra's name was ''Kön ...

Asia:

China Philharmonic Orchestra The China Philharmonic Orchestra (中国爱乐乐团; abbreviated CPO) is an orchestra founded in Beijing, China, on May 25, 2000, based on the previous "China Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra". It is a division of the State Administration of Ra ...

United States:

Count Basie Orchestra The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16 to 18 piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 195 ...

Rath artists

Rath's international roster of endorsing trombone artists includes Bert Boeren, Jimmy Bosch, Isrea Butler, Simon Chappell (

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is a music organisation based in Liverpool, England, that manages a professional symphony orchestra, a concert venue, and extensive programmes of learning through music. Its orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmon ...

), Bruce Collings,

Michael Dease Michael Patrick Dease (born August 25, 1982) is an American jazz tenor and bass trombonist, composer and producer. He also plays saxophone, trumpet, flugelhorn, bass and piano. Biography Michael Dease was born in Augusta, Georgia and attended ...

, Wes Funderburk,

Marc Godfroid Marc or MARC may refer to: People * Marc (given name), people with the first name * Marc (surname), people with the family name Acronyms * MARC standards, a data format used for library cataloging, * MARC Train, a regional commuter rail system o ...

, Kelsley Grant, André Hayward, Frederik Heirman,

Conrad Herwig Lee Conrad Herwig III (born 1959) is an American jazz trombonist from New York City. Biography Herwig began his career in Clark Terry's band in the early 1980s and has been a featured member in the Joe Henderson Sextet, Tom Harrell's Septet and ...

, John Higginbotham, Carol Jarvis, René Laanen, Xiaonan Li (

), Shuchang Liu (

), Don Lucas, Lyndon Meredith (

), Lode Mertens, Kevin Morgan (

, Catherine Noblet, John Rojak,

Dennis Rollins Dennis Rollins, (born 1964) is an English jazz trombonist, the founder and bandleader of BadBone and Co. Early life and career Dennis George Rollins was born in Birmingham, England, of Jamaican parents, and raised in Bentley, Doncaster, wher ...

, Ramón Luis Serra (

Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra The Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (PRSO) (''Orquesta Sinfónica de Puerto Rico'' in Spanish) a musical ensemble sponsored by the Government of Puerto Rico. It has 80 regular musicians from around the world performing a 52-week season which inc ...

), Rick Simerly, Alan Swain (

), Robb Tooley (

), Papo Vazquez, Csaba Wagner (

) and

Annie Whitehead Lena Annie Whitehead (born 16 July 1955 in Oldham, Lancashire, England) is an English jazz trombone player. Career Whitehead learned the trombone in high school and participated in rock and jazz bands. When she was 16, she left school to become ...

References

{{Reflist 1996 establishments in England Brass instrument manufacturing companies Companies based in Huddersfield Manufacturing companies established in 1996 Musical instrument manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom