Trumpeter Mills dies in car crash

Fred Mills performed all over the world

Trumpeter Fred Mills, who made numerous records with the Canadian Brass quintet, has died in a car accident at the age of 74.

The University of Georgia, where Mills taught music, said the musician was killed instantly after he crashed just outside Atlanta, where he lived.

He recorded more than 40 albums with the Canadian Brass and was nominated for a Grammy award in 1992.

A UGA spokesman called Mills an "inspiration to all who knew him".

Mills joined the university in 1996, where he taught the trumpet and coached a graduate brass quintet, The Bulldog Brass Society.

He had attended the Juilliard school of music in New York, where he got his first job offer even before he graduated.

Professionally, he performed all over the world, from Sweden's Brass Nova to Orquesta Sinfonica de Aguascalientes in Mexico.

In 1961, he became a founding member of the American Symphony Orchestra in New York and was the principal trumpet for the New York City Opera.

A statement on the Canadian Brass website said Mills was a "Canadian treasure who changed the world's musical perspective".

The statement added he had "spent over fifty years helping establish the trumpet as a beautiful, lyrical voice amongst solo orchestral instruments".