Interview with K&G Mouthpieces

It was in late 2016, that The Brass Musician first spoke to K&G Mouthpieces. In this interview we catch up with Dennis Kurun Camilleri and speak about the recent developments at K&G Mouthpieces

1. It has been quite a number of years since we last interviewed K&G mouthpieces, can you explain how K&G mouthpieces have been developing during this time?

Even though we were in the beginning, our mouthpieces since the first time they entered the market there was a lot of interest from International artists. We believed that the word began to spread and the feedback was very positive and this encouraged us to evolve more. In fact we discussed with many world renowned artists and immediately suggested to make developments regarding new models for different brass instruments but in the meantime continue to improve our high quality mouthpieces. Communication with many musicians and artists was the first stepping stone to continue to evolve.

2. There are many top brands of mouthpieces within the brass band world what makes K&G mouthpieces unique?

Throughout my career I tried several mouthpiece brands and with these trials gained knowledge in this subject so I knew what’s behind the mouthpiece and what I needed. We believe the mouthpieces of different brands are good when the musician knows what one needs and he adopts his personal characteristics. It’s not our aim to compare our mouthpieces with other different brands but what we did is to find a well balanced design in every part of the mouthpiece that makes a successful product and leave the musician to describe his judgement and opinion.

3. What are the characteristics of your Euphonium range of K&G Mouthpieces?

From time to time the Euphonium mouthpiece always tried to make it better without if possible losing other characteristics. It’s like a tug of war. You gain in a side and lose from the other side. Example roundness vs focusing, flat vs round, high pitch vs low pitch, high register vs low register and other characteristics. So by time and experience we built a model that the player will be comfortable to play with a natural sound of the instrument with an easy blow and well balanced resistance for control and support. We continued to improve the mouthpiece but we left the player to choose and expressing his thoughts and opinions. After the developments in the new Euphonium mouthpiece, we must say that all our International artists - whose feedback was very clear, that the design was outstanding.

4. You have had a number of high profile euphonium artists playing on K&G mouthpieces, are they involved in the development and testing of K&G mouthpieces and what input have they had into creating these mouthpieces?

In reality after several updates in the Euphonium mouthpiece we always had positive feedback and no one from our artists told us that they wish any personal characteristics. But from time to time we always provide them with new samples so we could understand better the artist. When there were recent updates in the mouthpiece, the artist always choose to have the latter one after several testing so we always been pleased with our successful updates.

5. What plans do you have for the future of K&G mouthpieces?

Our plans are always to meet and discuss with musicians and to provide opinions because you will have stronger ideas. Continuing attending International festivals and competitions so we will give more access the musicians trying out our products and work with distributors so the local musicians will have an opportunity to try our products. From the other side it’s obvious to continue investing in our projects and new designs to accommodate the musician.

6. What advice would you give to someone looking at purchasing a new mouthpiece?

After trying several mouthpieces the experience taught me what I need. Even through gained experience in the mouthpiece world it wasn’t a pleasant time both financial and more for my embouchure. I was settled when we began creating our own innovation because my biggest problem was to find a good mouthpiece for my Baritone and in the same time I will accommodate my trombone playing. From my experience and my opinion when a brass player purchase a mouthpiece, I always consider these factors.

1. Always have opinion from your tutor if you are especially a student.

   
   

2. Changing the mouthpiece is a very personal situation. Everyone have different jaws, teeth and face structure so if you have a good and comfortable mouthpiece stick with it unless there are issues.

   
   

3. Don’t change without any reason or change the mouthpiece cause your friend or college changed it. Everyone has his own tastes and imagination.

   
   

4. Always know what you are searching for and what are the characteristics you wish so it will be a very good step to find your desired mouthpiece. If the brass player doesn’t know what he is searching for, probably you are going to lose time and money without finding the right one.

7.  How should other brands influence K&G mouthpieces in development?

When I was young I always have been fascinated with mouthpieces because each mouthpiece had a specific shape. So I don’t know why I became a mouthpiece collector and began to buy the most popular mouthpieces that had very nice looking design. Even though I was happy in the beginning with my mouthpiece in a certain way after few years I felt that the mouthpiece was not working for me because I had a few partial notes which were blurred and difficult for slotting, even though I practiced for long hours everyday so I began experimenting on various mouthpieces to feel which one works for me.

Obviously in the beginning you feel good with every mouthpiece but after a certain time you realise that the mouthpiece is not for you and this will become a daily headache without reaching your desired goals. This problem took me for several years because when you find a comfortable mouthpiece you will not like his characteristics or when you find a mouthpiece that you like his characteristics you will find that’s it’s not comfortable. Another issue that I had I tried to find the same mouthpiece both in design and size for my trombone and baritone with same rim but you will find that the rim profile will not be the same, so these were a few of the problems that I experienced and it was the first stepping stone for our brand development.

8. Do you have any newly released up other projects which you are working on?

After years of work and success in 2018 we thought to be more adventurous and we began to think to make a high quality K&G Leather Pouch. We discussed and shared many ideas to produce a design that will be original and in the meantime will have deluxe product that accomplish with our mouthpieces. The project took us a lot of time to make the design and to make all parts in the pouch high grade quality. The pouch is made from high quality crazy horse leather to hold its shape, a compact design with two leather holders for the mouthpieces and is applicable for Trombones, Euphonium and Baritones. Perfect locking with a hidden magnet in the front of the pouch followed by our K&G Logo. To make our pouch more deluxe we made a gift box so the product will be completed.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dennis Kurun Camilleri, FLCM FTCL LLCM LRSM, Owner at K&G Mouthpieces, Second Trombonist with Malta Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Teacher for taking the time to provide an insight into K&G Mouthpieces. It has been incredible to see how the company has progressed these past few years putting their world class mouthpieces to the fore of mouthpiece development.