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News from the World of Brass Bands
The Year 2008
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The Haworth
Band, based in West Yorkshire in the UK, is very pleased to announce the
appointment of a new musical director, Donna Towse.
Donna, who hails from
Rochdale, has a wealth of experience as a player, having been principal cornet
with Skelmanthorpe
and United
Co-op Milnrow Bands and more recently assistant principal cornet with the
prestigious YBS Band. She has also been assistant conductor for a number of
other bands and is excited about taking on her latest challenge.
Donna said, "I'm looking forward to developing a great partnership and
building the band back to its former glory. There is a lot of young talent and
some very experienced players in The Band and and I am very excited about working
with them".
Carole
Paley
20/9/08 |
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It is with sadness that the members of Newhall
Band announce the death of Dennis Walker, Vice President of Newhall Band.
Dennis died on Tuesday 2nd September.
Dennis started playing at the age of 10 in 1933 when he began playing with
the Aston Band on euphonium. When he started work at Derby Railways he joined
Derby Railway Band on principal euphonium a position he held for 20 years before
moving on to solo horn which he played for 10 years. Dennis joined Newhall Band
in the mid 80's playing on tenor horn and then later moving on to baritone. In
the early 90's Dennis was instrumental in helping to start the Melbourne
Town Band.
He played with Newhall on both occasions they qualified for the National
Finals both in 1997 at Symphony Hall, one of the highlights of his banding life,
and in 2004 when the band once again qualified for the finals at Harrogate. He
was a loyal and hardworking member of the band being librarian of the band and
an active committee member and finally, following his retirement from playing,
acting as the band's Vice President.
Shiela
Dixon
11/9/08 |
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A group of musicians from Lincolnshire will be putting on what they believe to
be the first ever charity brass band concert at the top of Mount Snowdon. The
experienced players, calling themselves Rambling
Brass, will carry their instruments up the 3,500 feet to the summit of one
of Britain's highest mountains. And the concert on Saturday 30th August will
raise money for the NSPCC, plus launch an important awareness campaign within
the Brass Band community.
Organiser Heidi Bradley said: "I wanted to do something different both
to raise money for such an important charity and to launch the Off The Shelf
Campaign. So we tried to think of somewhere a concert has never been done
before, and decided Mount Snowdon was perfect. It's often described as the
busiest mountain in Britain, so there should be a good audience for us!"
The group all play for local brass bands and are used to performing, although
normally at lower altitudes! They are currently having a piece of music
specially commissioned for them to play at the summit. All money raised will go
to the NSPCC. The charity
concert is also being used to launch an awareness campaign within the national
Brass Band community.
The Off The Shelf Campaign
will encourage Brass Bands to review their Child Protection policy using NSPCC
guidance. This is to help encourage more young people to join Brass Bands and
ensure they take part in a safe environment. See www.offtheshelfcampaign.tk.
Heidi added: "We are expecting this to be a huge success and the perfect
way to launch the campaign and raise a lot of money. The only thing we're not
clear on it how to top it next year - taking a Brass Band up Everest could be
too much."
Heidi
Bradley
5/8/08 |
British Airways Band Helps Children With
Cancer
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Saturday
5th April saw the British
Airways Band perform Come Fly With Me!, a concert of film music from
the silver screen at St Mary"s Parish Church, Slough, Berkshire, UK.
The concert included film music from across the
decades and also features local guest artist Brian Neal at the piano. All
proceeds from the concert were donated to CLIC Sargent, a charity dedicated to
helping young people and their parents through their journey with cancer.
Susan
Vel
9/4/08 |
New Band Launches in Michigan, USA
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The West
Michigan Brass Band (John Aren), based in Grand Rapids, claims to be the
newest member of the North American Brass Band
Association.
The band will be
presenting their inaugural concert just prior to their departure to the North
American Championships in Louisville, KY, USA where is will be competing in the
open section.
The
Concert will take place at the Aquinas College Recital Hall, 1607 Robinson Rd SE
in Grand Rapids (49506 616.732.4487) on Thursday, March 27th at 7:30
p.m.
The concert will feature the test
pieces from this year"s contest and principal soloists.
A free
will offering will be received to offset the expenses of the trip.
John
Aren
19/3/08 |
Littleborough Appoints New MD
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Littleborough
Public Brass Band (Lancashire, UK) have appointed Doug Clarkson as its MD.
The 4th section carried out weeks of auditions seeing many able conductors along
the way, but Doug was the committee's number 1 choice. Alison Bailey, secretary
said, "We are delighted to announce someone of Doug's calibre as our new
MD. We had some fine candidates but he was by far the best suited. His
infectious enthusiasm and humour shone through straight away."
A former Army musician, Doug is a multi-instrumentalist on both brass and
reed instruments. Doug served 24 years in the Army, starting with the Queens
Regiment in Germany. He has conducted military bands all over the world,
including for royalty on numerous occasions.
Upon retiring from the services in 1994 he set up his own business which he
now runs with his son and lives in Clayton West near Huddersfield. Doug has two
other children, one grandchild with another on the way.
On his appointment Doug said, "I thank Littleborough band and the
committee from the bottom of my heart for the faith they have in me by
appointing me as their Musical Director. My goal now is to build on a foundation
already in place and with the band's dedication and commitment aim for
promotion."
Littleborough Band would like to wish Doug a long and happy tenure as MD of
the band, and are looking forward to some military style march practice in time
for Whit Friday!
Matthew
Bailey
17/3/08 |
Martlesham Brass Receives Grant
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Martlesham
Brass has recently been awarded £135 from the BT Community Champions Scheme
which the the bands expects to put toward the cost of a tam-tam.
April will be a busy month, they are looking looking forward to presenting a
fundraising concert at Alan Road Methodist Church on Saturday 5th April at
7.30pm. The Preliminary Band is also appearing at Landseer Road Methodist church
in April where they will be playing a selection of hymns in the morning service
on Sunday 20th April.
Liz
Benyon
17/3/08 |
BA Band Concert in Ealing
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On 15th March, the Ealing No.1 Club for old aged pensioners and people with
learning disabilities were treated to an evening of popular brass band melodies
and marches by The
British Airways Band (Francis Harman).
Club members were invited to dance to ‘Viennese
Nights’, sing along to ‘The Hippopotamus Song’ ably played by principal Eb
Bass Karen Burgess and provide percussion accompaniment to Mancini Magic. One
lucky club member, Kim Perry, even got to conduct the band in a rendition of the
march ‘Semper Fidelis’ by the ever popular JP Sousa.
Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and Mrs
Klein, the driving force behind the Ealing No.1 Club said, "It"s so lovely to
hear the band again, and the Bandmaster is fabulous in getting the audience to
join in so much."
The
British Airways Band performs a concert to the Ealing No.1 Club each year as
part of the club's entertainment schedule. The club runs on a tight budget and
is always looking for further support from local businesses in order to provide
services such as nights out like this for this vulnerable sector of the local
community. Susan
Vel
17/3/08 |
Totnes Band Receives Lottery Grant
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Totnes
Band (Ian Wilkinson) of Devon, UK, has been awarded a lottery grant under
the Awards For All scheme to the sum of £3480. This money has been specifically
awarded to help the band develop further their Youth Training Band known as
Double T Brass. Currently Double T Brass has 16 regular players with ages
ranging from 8 to 16 who meet at St Johns Church in Bridgetown on Saturdays at
9.30. Under the watchful eye of Ian Wilkinson, Totnes Bands musical director and
with the assistance of some experienced players from the senior band, these
youngsters get free musical tuition and they even try to supply the youngsters
with a instrument free of charge. The band hopes to use the grant to offer this
to even more youngsters and give them the gift of music, a truly enriching life
skill.
They will use the grant to purchase more instruments and are keen to hear
from anyone interested in joining, especially to play trombones, tenor horns,
baritones or euphoniums but any brass instrumentalists are welcome. Be quick,
the instruments are limited in number and will be loaned out to the first
players to join.. If you are interested then call Steve
Dayment on 01803 863988 or just call in on a Saturday morning.
Steve
Dayment
20/2/08 |
Burbage Band Plays Host To Fodens
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The young players of Burbage
Band (Steve Chritchlow) of Buxton, Derbyshire, UK, are pleased and excited to announce that members of the Fodens
Richardson Band have agreed to come along to Buxton to give the band a days
training, a repeat of a highly successful event day the band organised a few
years ago. Seven world class players from Fodens's line up will pass on the
benefit of their experience to the band is sectional practises and a question
and answer session, before sitting in with the band in a full band rehearsal.
Burbage Band, who are renowned in the High Peak for having trained most of
their own players via their junior and training bands, are hoping the day will
have a short term boost to their impending Area challenge, but more importantly,
to the long term development of their players. Conductor Steve Critchlow said,
"We are indebted to Mark Wilkinson and the Fodens band for agreeing to work
with us, to the High Peak Brass Band Association for their contribution towards
the funding of this event, and to the members of our supporters club who have
raised money towards the training and development of our players. We are looking
forward to this day with great excitement".
Steve
Chritchlow
20/2/08 |
Burbage Band Opens New Band-Room
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The members of Burbage
Band, based in Buxton in Derbyshire, had their first rehearsal of 2008 in
their newly built band-room in the heart of the village. Members and supporters
have been fund-raising for many years in order to build a replacement for the
bands old room, which was sadly lacking in modern facilities and secure storage.
The old band-room was originally the village hall and was built back in the
1880s with a wood lined interior and a corrugated iron clad exterior (and with
no insulation in between!).
Among all the excitement of the first rehearsal in the new room, band members
were delighted to see a newly commissioned painting hanging on the wall, which
shows the inside of the old band room one week prior to its demolition in June
2007. The painting will hopefully hang for many years to come, to act as a
reminder of the great character of the old place.
The beautifully detailed painting, which is done in acrylics on board,
measures a grand looking 42 inches wide and was done by local artist and horn
player Laura Critchlow. The work was commissioned by Burbage band's principal
cornet player Carl Gartside, who has decided that the best place for it is
hanging in the new band room for present and future generations to enjoy. The
band are very proud of it, and are sure that every visitor to the new band room
will enjoy it, not least those who attend their future open day (date to be
announced).
Steve
Chritchlow
29/1/08 |
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