4BR has caught up with Joseph Alessi as he looks forward to renewing his association with the brass banding through his link to Brass Band of Battle Creek.

He is to be one of the band's featured soloists in their high profile concert conducted by Michael J Garasi that will close the enormous 75th anniversary Midwest Clinic conference in Chicago on December 18th.

He talks about his connections to the brass band world on both sides of the Atlantic, the incredible Midwest Clinic, the work which he asked Philip Sparke to write for him and of his personal memories of the great orchestral conductor Bernard Haitink.