Katrina Marzella-Wheeler Musical Director

Katrina Marzella-Wheeler was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1983 and is well-established in the brass music world as an instrumentalist, conductor and teacher.

 

For many years, Katrina practised as a lawyer in Manchester, England, before committing her professional life entirely to music. Katrina won the inaugural BBC Radio 2 Young Brass Soloist of the Year in 2004, and BBC Fame Academy Winner in 2005, as well as the British Open Solo Championships in 2006 and 2007, and the Ern Keller International Soloist Award in 2007 and 2008.

 

She was runner-up at the 5th European Soloist Competition in Linz in 2010 and was awarded the ‘Best Soloist’ award at the 2014 European Brass Band Championships. Katrina is in increasing demand as a conductor across the UK and Europe. She aims to bring vitality to the brass music sector with her programming, collaborations and creative productions, and has a commitment to increasing diversity on the conductor’s podium in brass and wind bands.

 

In recognition for her work in this area, she was nominated by the Royal Philharmonic Society to receive an Inspiration Award in 2025. She was the first woman to conduct at the European Brass Band Championships Main Event in Stavanger Norway, in May 2025. In recent years, she has been the guest conductor of Aldbourne Band (UK), Eikanger Bjørksvik Mussiklag (NO), Festival Brass Band (BE), Italian Brass Band (IT), Regensburg Brass Band (DE), and is currently the Principal Conductor of the Glasgow-based Scottish champion band, the Cooperation Band, to whom she lead to a historic victory at the 2025 Brass in Concert Championships.

 

Katrina is passionate about creating new music and has premiered over 30 new solo works for her instrument with piano, string orchestra, brass bands and wind bands. Many of these works feature on her two award-winning solo albums, entitled Katrina (2008) and Spotlight (2019). Katrina was integral to the development of the Yamaha Neo baritone horn and performs exclusively as a Yamaha Artist on the instrument she helped design. As an ensemble instrumentalist, Katrina was the solo baritone horn player of the famous Black Dyke Band from 2011 to 2020. During her tenure, she enjoyed competitive success with the band, including being crowned British Open, National and European Champions on several occasions. Creative collaborations saw numerous premieres and over 50 studio recordings of new music by notable British composers such as Sir James McMillan, Paul Mealor, Judith Bingham, Elgar Howarth, Simon Dobson, Philip Wilby, Martin Ellerby and Peter Graham.