Jon Talks Trumpet

08/04/2026

KAPLAN BREHM 🤝 Brevard Music Center

Such a lovely experience to visit Brevard again!

07/22/2026

KAPLAN BREHM 🤝 Eastern Festival of Music

It was my pleasure last week to give an in-depth presentation on trumpet mouthpieces and share the KAPLAN BREHM mouthpiece ecosystem with the incredible trumpet students of the Eastern Festival of Music!

Our presentation covered a wide range of topics, including how various parts of mouthpiece affect playing characteristics, how to find the best prosthetic fit for your playing needs, and how to build a complete toolkit that helps players address the full gamut of genres and playing scenarios they can find themselves in the modern world.

Huge thanks to EFM trumpet faculty members Alex Wilborn and Chris Gekker for the opportunity!

Are you interested in KAPLAN BREHM coming to present at your university or festival? Message us and we can talk about how we can make it happen!

07/22/2026

It was my pleasure last week to give an in-depth presentation on trumpet mouthpieces and share the KAPLAN BREHM mouthpiece ecosystem with the incredible trumpet students of the Eastern Festival of Music!

Our presentation covered a wide range of topics, including how various parts of mouthpiece affect playing characteristics, how to find the best prosthetic fit for your playing needs, and how to build a complete toolkit that helps players address the full gamut of genres and playing scenarios they can find themselves in the modern world.

Huge thanks to EFM trumpet faculty members Alex Wilborn and Chris Gekker for the opportunity!

Are you interested in KAPLAN BREHM coming to present at your university or festival? Message us and we can talk about how we can make it happen!

05/20/2026

Berlioz: Harold in Italy
Bernstein: Symphony No. 2, The Age of Anxiety

Two very interesting and fulfilling works that I had never had the pleasure of playing before. Inspirational playing as always from the - the Berlioz was exquisite and refreshing, contrasted with the very unique Bernstein, which had some very groovy “math rock” sections in addition to its uniquely haunting and glorious melodies.

Pictured mouthpiece - 640 5/8 No. 26

05/08/2026

Another week, another great program - this time with featuring “On the Bridge of the Eternal” by Christopher Theofanidis and Bernstein Symphony No. 1 “Jeremiah”. Full of gratitude for such an invigorating program and for getting to work with this vibrant and extremely inspiring orchestra.

mouthpiece of the day - the 640 5/8 No. 26, which is a 1.5 diameter piece with our thoughtfully designed hybrid BC cup on our efficient and supportive No. 26 bore. I love using our system to dial in exactly the level of embouchure support, color, and resistance for specific musical situations.😎🎺

05/03/2026

Had a lot of fun last week with the on an epic program - always a pleasure to return to Phoenix and play with this awesome orchestra. As an alum I have had a connection to this place and it’s nearly perfect weather for over a decade (let’s not talk about the summer ☀️☠️). Inspiring to play with their new principal trumpet and my long time teacher/mentor Benny Nguyen. Full of gratitude for a great week!

04/22/2026

Phoenix, AZ trumpet players - KAPLAN BREHM is holding a trumpet mouthpiece pop-up showing at the Professional Musicians of Arizona building on Friday, April 24th from 2pm-4pm 🤝🎺

04/09/2026

G trumpet by .official

Today I’m featuring this gorgeous and FULL FEATURED 4 valve G trumpet made by Thein Brass. It’s an exquisite package - quite free blowing and thoughtfully constructed to feel like a big horn (especially with that larger radius tuning slide!), while still having the efficiency upgrade of a higher key instrument. It also has two tuning triggers - one for the 1st valve, and the other is a combo 3rd and 4th valve (which offers a large number of possibilities for alternate fingerings as well as *actually in tune* lower 4th valve fingerings). The 1st valve is also vented for convenience, letting you preset the first valve trigger whether or not the first valve is depressed.

When compared to my .bandandorchestra 9710 G trumpet, the Thein is quite a bit denser in mass and sound, has a larger bell flare, and has a noble and teutonic character - a great choice for playing big horn parts on first trumpet in quintet.