News from the World of Brass Bands

New Musical Director for Howarth Band

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

Vice President of Newhall Band Dies

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

Band Concert on the top of Mount Snowdon

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

Saturday 5^th 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

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 27^th 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 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

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

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 (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, 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

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