Jonathon "Barny" Bowden was born in 1974 in Nelson, Lancashire. He started playing the trumpet at secondary school. Soon after started to play he joined his home town brass band and progressed quickly. By school leaving age he was playing with 5 different bands. and was fortunate to represent Lancashire Youth Brass Band playing a fanfare in Westminster Abbey at the age of 15.

Upon leaving school in 1990 he joined the Royal Marines Band Service where he served for 7 years as a cornet/trumpet player.

Jonathon enjoys football, both playing and watching and spends a lot of his free time he has writing for the ensembles he is involved in.

During his career as a professional trumpet player he has been involved in teaching at BYBA courses, he currently teaches for the Binfield Concert Band and several private pupils.

He is married to Emma and has two children, Emily & Megan.