Schools in for Summer

Band members attend the Brass Band Summer School

While most people start to think of holidays and breaking up from school in the summer, five dedicated band members decided to do the reverse and go back to school for a week as part of the renown Brass Band Summer School. A few pictures from their week and an article from on the spot reporter Lyndsay Gray follows :-

Our Ladies :- Kate, Lyndsay & Trish at Rehearsals

Early in August, five members of the band (Yvette, Kate, Trish, Chris and myself) went up to Suffolk to attend the annual Brass Band Summer School (BBSS) which originated in 1986 and was this year held for the first time at Framlingham College. The college enjoys a magnificent situation, looking out across the mere to the Twelfth-Century Castle, the college facilities were good and having three cooked meals a day was very good! Our conductor for the week was Richard Evans who’s charismatic and dynamic leadership took the three bands – two bands of half the delegates in each and the massed bands which comprised of about 80 enthusiastic players.

Yvette has been on many BBSS before and had therefore made many friends from previous years. On Tuesday night Yvette performed a solo and duet and took part in small ensembles later in the week.
Kate was representing CTB on the social side – every time I saw her she was talking to someone different and completely engaging in the comfortable atmosphere. Kate performed a duet and quartet and took part in small ensembles.

Trish, Kate and Yvette played in “Hathaway” band and because there were so many baritones and euphoniums, Yvette (on second baritone) sat next to Kate on third cornet! They rehearsed four pieces including ‘Les Preludes’ by Lizst, arranged by Bram Gay who superseded the previously famous arrangement by William Rimmer.

Chris and I played in “Shakespeare” band, and we also rehearsed four pieces including ‘Strike up the Band’ and ‘Essence of Time’ written by Peter Graham who wrote it for the 1990 European Championships.

Trish spent a lot of her free time during the week playing badminton or table tennis and also got a lesson with each of the cornet tutors, Brian Taylor (Fairey Band) and Mark Wilkinson (Fodens Band).
Chris is a highly regarded member of the BBSS staff and always made sure there was a seat for everyone in the rehearsal hall, he took fantastic photos of the week and also played flugelhorn along with the eight others!

In the massed band Kate, Trish and I played second cornet and although one piece of music was virtually unreadable we all exceeded our initial (and second) thoughts that we would never be able to play any of the notes! Somehow with Richard Evans’ smile and wise words of “Play what you can, then leave out the rest!!” we succeeded to perform a great Friday night concert.

Overall in my opinion it was a great week and we received invaluable learning from stunning musicians coupled with the honour of being a delegate for Richard Evans.

Lyndsay Gray
September 2010

More pictures and details of the Summer School can be found at http://www.brassbandsummerschool.com

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