Michael Hext
{{Short description|British musician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2014}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2014}}
{{Infobox musical artist
|birth_date = {{birth year and age|1961}}
|background = non_vocal_instrumentalist
|occupation = Trombonist
|current_member_of = Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
|instrument = Trombone
}}
Michael Hext (born c. 1961) is a trombonist in the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.{{Cite web|url=https://www.roh.org.uk/about/orchestra|title=Orchestra of the Royal Opera House|website=www.roh.org.uk}} In 1978 he was the inaugural winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition.The Guardian, Monday April 10, 1978, p. 10{{Cite web|url=https://issuu.com/britishtrombonesociety/docs/the_trombonist_autumn_2008|title=The Trombonist Autumn 2008 by British Trombone Society |website=issuu.com|date=17 December 2016 }}
Career
Michael Hext was educated at Bedford Modern School.School of the Black And Red, A History of Bedford Modern School by Andrew Underwood (1981); reset and updated by Peter Boon, Paul Middleton and Richard Wildman, 2010 In 1978, at the age of 17, he became the inaugural winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition.{{Cite web|title=BBC Young Musician|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/30fbGz5zx7Rl1wHNYQk6lVb/history|access-date=2021-09-06|website=BBC}} Following study at the Royal College of Music with John Iveson, Hext has become a successful orchestral trombonist but performs on occasions as a soloist, including a tour with the European Union Youth Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/youngmusician/sites/content/pages/past_winners.shtml|title=BBC Young Musician – Past winners|website=www.bbc.co.uk}} He has performed recitals and concertos at the Wigmore Hall,{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/959961|title=London Music Diary for July|year=1978|journal=The Musical Times|volume=119|issue=1624|pages=562–564|jstor=959961}} the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and many other concert halls.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BqQJAQAAMAAJ&q=hext+|title=Composer|date=21 November 1982|publisher=British Music Information Centre.|via=Google Books}} He has also had a number of pieces written for him including a concerto by Edward Gregson (pub. Novello).{{Cite web|url=https://edwardgregson.com/works/trombone-concerto/|title=Trombone Concerto}}
Amongst a wide variety of freelance performances he played with the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble.McDonald, Donna: The Odyssey of the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble {{ISBN|2-88039-006-0}}{{page?|date=January 2025}} In 1983 he joined the Halle Orchestra as Principal Trombone.{{Cite web|url=https://www.feenotes.com/database/artists/hext-mike-1961-present/|title=Hext, Mike (1961-Present)}} After one year he took up the same position with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for nine years.
For a period Michael Hext was Professor of Trombone at the Royal Academy of Music and then the Royal College of Music. Since joining the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House on Principal Trombone he moved to Sub-principal Trombone in 2000.{{Cite web|title=Orchestra of the Royal Opera House|url=https://www.roh.org.uk/about/orchestra|access-date=2021-09-06|website=Royal Opera House}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{BBC Young Musician of the Year}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hext, Michael}}
Category:People educated at Bedford Modern School
Category:British classical trombonists
Category:British male trombonists
Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Music
Category:Academics of the Royal Academy of Music
Category:Academics of the Royal College of Music
Category:20th-century classical trombonists
Category:21st-century classical trombonists
Category:20th-century British male musicians
Category:21st-century British male musicians