My daughter took part in a brass day today in Limoges. It was for pupils from all over the region and of all levels. The pupils rehearsed for three hours in the morning and then gave a concert in the afternoon in the Opera Theatre.

The pupils were divided into four groups according to their level (I hesitate to say four brass bands as they were playing classical music) and I suppose an English equivalent would be grades 1-3, grades 4-5, grades 6-7, grade 8+. Each group played for about ten minutes and then at the end there was a short performance by the teachers.

What struck me was how the number of girls playing decreased as the pupils got better. In the first group there were probably about 45-50 pupils and roughly equal numbers of boys and girls. In the second group numbers had dropped to about 25 and there were marginally more boys than girls. In the last group of about 15 advanced players only one was a girl (playing the French horn) and there was not a single female brass teacher.

My wife's choir performed the Brahms Requiem recently with the Brandenburg Sinfonia (if we remember correctly). This had a majority of women, including an excellent leader and all four horn players.

This is one area in which the UK appears to be ahead of many other European countries.

In my band (Coventry) there is a majority of female brass players as well. A new generation so to speak as they are all aged around 11 - 18. There are more male teachers than females though, but with the younger groups being dominated by females, this could soon be reversed.

I don't like to see this either, there should be more girls encouraged to play brass, and more importantly, encouraged to stick with it.
I'm a girl.
Cornet player.
Can sight read grade 8+ with not too much trouble.

And I have several friends who are girls who are at the same level/more advanced than me

I'm more worried about the general dearth of male musicians (other than guitarists and percussionists!). All the bands and orchestras in our area are dominated by females, who outnumber males by 3 or 4 to 1, and brass is the one area where things are a little more even.

Classical music seems to be increasingly viewed as a "girly" thing here, and nearly all the boys end up in rock or jazz bands to the detriment of classical groups. A sad sign of the times.

Yes, I've noticed more girls coming through to the higher grades of brass instruments which our local girls' school music teacher is very pleased about. Only about 4 or 5 years ago she had to "borrow" some boys to play the brass section when the girls' school orchestra played. Now, however, the boys' school orchestra has to borrow some girls on the violin section.

Boys seem happy playing instruments that are considered masculine enough by their peers - so violins, flutes and the like are a bit off.

true! very true!

I have to agree with this statement, and more female musicians are coming out compared to what it used to be 'back in the old days'

One thing I would suggest for many would be musicians is to tell them classical music has roots in almost everything, for example video game music which a lot of children/younger adults like.

I run a youth brass band - we have 15 boys and 31 girls!

In my school (west coast of Scotland) we have only 2 boys in our brass section which consists of 9 people so there are 7 girls ( who are all younger than the two boys!)