If you are cornet player looking for the opportunity to join our friendly Championship Section Band, then give us a call. We have a space in the team with the position being open to discussion and negotiation. We have some great jobs in the pipeline for the next few months including collaborations with Cory Band and Grimethorpe along with a live performance of the Snowman before Christmas.
If you fancy looking into joining us and want more information, then get in touch with our MD Richard Wilton for a discussion in confidence.
After spending a rather warm couple of days at All Saints School on Nunnery Lane, the senior band completed recording the music for our new Christmas CD which will be out in time for the Christmas Gala concerts in December.
Here are a few photos of what we got up to on the day. I’m sure you will agree the choreography from the percussion section is of the highest order!
Our thanks have to go out to Keith and George from Music House Productions for their work on setting up and recording, to Bronte Wilkinson, Kate Ironton, James Stockdale and of course Sharon “7 hours” Greenfield for filling in a few spaces we had.
It is a few years since the Senior Band released their last Christmas CD and we are asked at every concert when the next one is coming out. We can answer that now and our new Christmas CD will be out in time for Christmas 2023. What that means for the band is that we need to record the music and this weekend saw us head down to All Saints RC School to lay down the tracks.
We welcomed Sharon Greenfield back for the recording, Sharon was our Flugelhorn player for many years and when we asked for a horn player to cover a seat, Sharon stepped in and made the 7 hour journey up from her home in Devon to help us out. That’s dedication!
It does feel odd recording Christmas music while most of the band are sitting in shorts and T shirts, but some players really got into he spirit of the session and got out their Christmas shirts.
The first days recording went well and the work rate was extremely high.
The percussion crew figured out there was a time lapse running and set about choreographing their own little stop motion video. Such ingenuity!
Keep a look out for the details of the CD release date and also look out for the band’s earlier CD content being made available for streaming over a range of streaming platforms in the near future. In the meantime, here’s an outtake from the recording session and a short teaser of what’s coming up.
Light Up A Life is an event our bands have been proud to be part of for many years in York. This year is no different and Sunday saw our Youth Band heading off to Selby Abbey where they performed to a packed audience in aid of St Leonards Hospice. This really is one of the most important performances of the year for the Youth Band and they were superb as they always are.
On December 10th, the Senior Band took on a new Christmas Challenge at St Andrews Church in Bishopthorpe when they performed the live soundtrack to a showing Raymond Briggs’ animated film “The Snowman”. This was a new experience for the band, playing film music is a very different performance to a concert performance and the build up to this has been quite intense.
The band was joined by Buffy Breakwell who played keyboards with us and Sophie Sylvester who provided the vocals for the iconic song “Walking in the Air”. Everyone in the band was really impressed with the professionalism and superb musical ability of both our guests for the day. We can only hope this will not be our last collaboration.
We could have sold the tickets for this ten times over so next year we will be back to do it all over again. Watch this space!
That wasn’t the only thing we did on the day though!
In the interval between performances, the band went along to Bishopthorpe Sports and Social Club to play Christmas Carols for the Lollipop children’s Christmas party. Lollipop is a charity for D/deaf children and their families in York and the band’s Principal Cornet player Sean Chandler is involved in making music with the children the charity works with.
When Sean asked if a few players could go, the whole band said yes. Playing “Away in a Manger” with a choir signing the words was such a powerful moment.
If you want to know more about Lollipop and want to support their work, check out their website.
On February 5th 2023, the Senior Band will join forces with the World Famous Black Dyke Band from Queensbury near Bradford in order to raise money for York Against Cancer. This will be the second time the band has taken part in the York Against Cancer events with the last concert back in early 2020 with Brighouse and Rastrick.
This is a great opportunity to take in a great afternoon of Brass music held at York Grand Opera House, while contributing towards a great York charity. Do keep your eyes open for tickets, bookmark the date and we look forward to seeing you there.
Join five of the Shepherd Group Brass Bands as we celebrate HM Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee. 🇬🇧 The concert will take at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre York, Saturday June 18th 7pm. Grab your tickets now and don’t miss out 🎫 👑🇬🇧🎺👑
With the increase of new members joining the Brass Academy we are starting to run short of instruments.
We currently have a substantial list of missing instruments, some of which are still signed out to current and past members.
This week we will be starting to contact ex players we believe to still have a loaned SGBB instrument. If you have more than one instrument at home not being used, or are an ex-member and still have a instrument, please drop off for me at the bandroom or contact me on 07973442249 or email richardwilton@nesyork.org to arrange collection.
Your help and assistance in this matter would be very much appreciated, let’s keep the sound of Brass Alive at the SGBB organisation.
The Senior Band made a return visit to Blackpool for the first time since 2019 when the the British Open Spring Festival returned to the contest calendar. The band performed Freedom by Hubert Bath in the Senior Cup after being promoted from the Senior Trophy in the 2019 contest. It seems such a long time ago that happened.
The test piece was originally chosen to mark the 100th spring festival but COVID intervened and the contest was delayed for 2 years. Freedom was originally written for the National Championships of 1922 so playing it in the Senior Cup 100 years later is still quite fitting.
It would have been great to come back with qualifiation for the Grand Shield next year, but the band produced a creditable 12th out of the 20 bands competing and saw a number of well known bands come below them. The result consolidates our place in the Senior Cup and will be something to build on next year.
Shepherd Group Brass Band Require – A flugelhorn Player.
A Very Rare opportunity has arisen within our North Of England Championship Section Band. The Shepherd Group Band are looking to recruit a FLUGELHORN PLAYER to join the ranks of our friendly band.
We have a sensible concert and contest diary, with the emphasis very much on quality entertaining concerts in a variety of exciting venues.
Our rehearsal facilities are second to none, based in York at the conference centre of the Head Office site of our sponsor, Shepherd Group.
If you would like to find out more about the band, or just have an informal chat please contact our Musical Director Richard Wilton richardwilton@nesyork.org or call 07973442249.
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