Distin family

The Distin family was an ensemble of British musicians in the 19th century who performed on brass instruments, and from 1845 promoted the saxhorn.

John Distin (1798–1863) was born in Plympton, and began his musical career with the South Devon Militia, and from 1814 in the Grenadier Guards.

[1][2][3][4] He was known as a soloist in his early teens: the melodrama The Miller and his Men by Henry Bishop, which contained a trumpet obbligato based on Distin's style, dates from 1813.

[7] The development by Halary of the ophicleides is put down to a request from Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich of Russia, who had there heard Distin play the keyed bugle for the Grenadier Guards.

On the king's death in 1830, the band was dissolved, and he spent a number of years in Scotland, at Taymouth as bandmaster to John Campbell, 1st Marquess of Breadalbane, then formed a brass quintet with his four sons.

[12] Ann Matilda was from a noted family of musicians in Bath, Somerset, the elder sister of John David Loder.

[12] Adolph Sax introduced his saxhorns in 1844, and that year the Distin family encountered him in Paris, and adopted the new range of brass instruments.

[17] In January 1845 the Distins performed on silver saxhorns for Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort at Stowe House.

[20][21] In that same year, 1845, the first ever brass band competition formally organised took place at Burton Constable, as part of a celebration run by Thomas Clifford-Constable, with instruments supplied by the Distins.

[23] The Distin brass quartet accepted a 40 concert booking in New York for the 1849 season, but the venue burned to the ground while they were crossing the Atlantic.