We have great pleasure in announcing the winners for these awards for 2026.
The International Trombone Association presents several awards each year. The individual awards are the ITA Award, presented annually to an individual who has greatly influenced the field of trombone; the Neill Humfeld Award, which recognizes outstanding trombone teaching while honoring the teaching excellence of the late Neill Humfeld; the Legacy Circle Award, which recognizes unparalleled accomplishments in the trombone community; and the Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors contributions to the trombone profession over the course of a long career.
ITA award
Katy Jones
Principal Trombone of Manchester’s world-renowned Hallé orchestra since 2012, Katy Jones was previously the first ever female brass principal in the history of the London Symphony Orchestra. She can be heard on numerous soundtracks, including Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, The Marvels, and the Harry Potter series. As a young student, Katy won the Don Lusher Prize in the BBC Big Band Competition, BBC Young Musician of the Year Brass Prize, and was a finalist in the Shell/LSO competition. More recently she has received the Sheila Tracy Award, as well as Teacher of the Year, and Player of the Year awards, nominated and voted for by the British Trombone Society Membership. An alumni of the pan-European Gustav Mahler Jügendorchester, she continues to be a member of Fine Arts Brass, and a regular guest with many other UK orchestras, plus the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
Senior trombone tutor at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music and a National Youth Orchestra coach, Katy is also on the faculty of the OAcademy, working online with students from across the world. As a soloist and clinician she has appeared worldwide, including at the Arctic Trombone Festival, Dublin Brass Week, and several International Trombone Festivals. In 2019 Katy gave the world première of John Casken’s concerto The Madonna of Silence with the Hallé, broadcast by BBC Radio 3. Confirmed plans this year include visits to the Cimvo Brass Festival (Spain) and Gravissimo in Portugal and she will be a member of the jury at the Aeolus Competition 2026.
Katy has a Master’s Degree in Pharmacy, and has maintained an active interest in health education and injury prevention throughout her career. She was awarded a Senior Fellowship at the RNCM in recognition of the broad scope of her work. Continually pursuing her extensive research into breathing, and the impact it has on our anatomy and physiology, she is fully qualified to teach the Buteyko method and has presented successful lectures and workshops for many students and professionals of all instruments. Her aim is to enable all students of music to become more confident and articulate about their own bodies and health, whilst providing them with the foundations of good breathing practice.
Katy comes from a rural area on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales in the UK, and began playing the trombone in Kirkby Lonsdale Brass Band. Recognising this route as an essential path for professional British brass players, she started a new Youth Band in her current Yorkshire village, which is building in strength every year. She is a regular supporter of the British Trombone Society, an organisation which inspired her as a very young player and allowed her to meet and learn from former recipients of this ITA award, such as Ian Bousfield and Don Lusher.
The neill humfeld award
Niels-Ole Bo Johansen
Born in 1961, Niels-Ole Bo Johansen grew up in his native Viborg, Denmark, where his musical journey began at the age of seven as a euphonium player in the local youth wind band. At sixteen he switched to the trombone, and just three years later, in 1981, he secured his first professional position as bass trombonist in The Prince of Denmark Regimental – 4 years later auditioning for the Funen Life Guard Band – this time as principal trombonist.
Johansen served in the military until the age of 25, when he successfully auditioned for the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, where he remained a member until 1998.
His first teacher was the trumpeter John Leth, the energetic conductor of the local wind band in Viborg. After changing to trombone, Johansen began studying with Rolf Sandmark, who had recently been appointed principal trombonist of the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra. Further artistic inspiration came from leading international trombonists including Ingemar Roos (Sweden), Ron Barron (USA) and, not least, Benny Sluchin (France), with whom Johansen undertook an extended period of study in Paris.
Alongside his orchestral career, Niels-Ole Bo Johansen has been highly active as both a chamber musician and a soloist. He was a co-founder of Århus Sinfonietta and has maintained long-standing artistic collaborations with the organist Ulrik Spang-Hanssen and the pianist Erik Kaltoft. Together they have recorded the majority of Johansen’s extensive CD-output.
As a soloist, Johansen has released approximately 20 CDs and has appeared on numerous recordings with ensembles including the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Århus Sinfonietta, Aarhus Jazz Orchestra and New Music Orchestra. His discography also includes collaborations with prominent Danish jazz, pop and rock artists.
Teaching has been an integral part of Johansen’s professional life from an early stage. Already as a young army bandsman he taught around fourteen young trombone students on a weekly basis and conducted amateur wind and brass bands. In 1988 he was offered teaching positions at smaller academies in Denmark and Norway, and the following year he was invited to join the faculty of the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus. He was promoted to Associate Professor (Docent) in 1995 and, following a successful audition, appointed Full Professor of Trombone and Chamber Music in 2000.
Over the years, around 100 trombone students have studied with Niels-Ole Bo Johansen, with very few exceptions now active in professional musical life.
Niels-Ole Bo Johansen was first invited to perform at the International Trombone Festival in Feldkirch, Austria, in 1996, and has since appeared at festivals in Helsinki, Las Vegas, Beijing, Rotterdam and Nashville. In 2009 he hosted the International Trombone Festival at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark. He served alongside John Drew and Tom Plsek on the first ITF Board until 2017, helping to facilitate festivals around the world. He also served as Second Vice-President of the International Trombone Association from 2011 to 2014.
The 2025–26 academic year has been particularly busy, featuring guest teaching engagements and masterclasses at the University of Stavanger in connection with the Bjergsted Brass Festival, Toneheim Folk High School in Norway, the conservatoires in Vicenza and Málaga, the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany. Later this year Johansen will travel to Barcelona to teach at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya.
Together with colleagues he will also take part in the 3rd European Low Brass Festival, to be held in September this year in Stavanger, Norway. In the spring he will host no fewer than four masterclasses at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus.
In parallel with this extensive international activity, Johansen is currently working on a book about the history and traditions of the trombone in Denmark. Based on interviews with leading trombonists, the book aims to document the development of the Danish trombone tradition from 1940 to the present day, focusing on key figures, repertoire and stylistic trends.
Furthermore, Niels-Ole Bo Johansen is closely involved in the organisation of the 1st International Christian Lindberg Solo Competition for brass and percussion, to be held at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus from 13 to 19 September 2027.
