Christmas kicked off in style.

The weekend of the 9th and 10th of December saw the Senior Band kick off Christmas in real style. First of all a small group of players headed off to Bishopthorpe Club on December 9th to play carols at the annual Lollipop Christmas Party.

Lollipop is a charity supporting d/Deaf children and their parents and offers them a social environment where they can get together. The band have joined with the NCEM I Can Play programme over the last year to offer places in Brass Roots where d/Deaf children can take up playing a brass instrument. We are so excited to be part of this initiative and many members of the band have started learinig to sign using BSL as part of this. More on that Later!

December 10th saw the senior band head to the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall at the University of York where we put on three performances of The Snowman live. We were pleased to welcome Buffy Breakwell who accompanied us on the Grand Piano and Sophie Sylvester who provided stunning vocals in the iconic Walking in the Air. Thanks also have to go to York Concerts who partnered with us on both this and the recent Cory concerts and withouth whom we would have found this much harder to do.

We couldn’t just leave things there though and we added in a couple of extra pieces, the first was Into the Unknown from the film Frozen II and then we introduced something really new for the band. As we move into 2024, we are going to build on the work we have done with Lollipop and I can play and we are making our concerts more inclusive for our d/Deaf friends. The first step here is going to be the introduction of signing at our concerts. With this in mind our Principal Cornet player Sean Chandler, who is himself d/Deaf, taught the audience the BSL words for Merry Christmas Everyone having first explained the challenges faced in selecting the correct cutlery.

The feedback we have had was that the audience participation in this number was a real highlight for everyone who was there, and Sean has confessed he was quite choked up to see the players in the band not only getting involved in the signing themselves, but also giving a round of applause using signing at the end of the piece.

Sean teaching the signing for Merry Christmas Everyone

Thanks to Jenni Chandler for ther video clip.

York Carol Concert

It wouldn’t be Christmas without York’s Annual Community Carol Concert, for 65 years the concert has marked the start of the festive season and we are back at York Barbican with a bang (and maybe some snow too) to celebrate 65 years of festive fun and all your favourite Christmas carols and songs.

Join Shepherd Group Youth Band, Badger Hill School Choir, Track 29 Ladies Harmony Chorus, York Stage School and Steve Cassidy for a Christmas sing along under the baton of Musical Director Mike Pratt. Carol concert favourites Adam Tomlinson and Rev Andrew Foster return to keep you entertained, be ready for laughs and maybe some festive surprises…

Proceeds from this year’s concert will go to the Lord Mayor and Sheriff of York’s Christmas Cheer Fund and the Press nominated charity. Help us make a difference to the lives of people in our community this Christmas.

St Leonards Hospice Light Up a Life

A Memorial Service for Christmas held in partnership with St Leonard’s Hospice

Join the Shepherd Group Youth Brass Band for this wonderful and moving event at Selby Abbey.

Knaresborough Christmas Market

The concert band will be entertaining the folks of Knaresborough in the market place with a selection of christmas ditties and community carolling. I’m sure none of the band will be heading to Blind Jacks after they finish playing…

Christmas Concert 23rd December

The annual Christmas Gala Concerts take place on December 22nd and 23rd at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York.

We look forward to seeing you at this most popular event.

Tickets are available from the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Box Office priced at £15.00. We will keep you posted on when these are released, don’t miss out, these concerts are always sold out.

Christmas Concert 22nd December

The annual Christmas Gala Concerts take place on December 22nd and 23rd at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York.

We look forward to seeing you at this most popular event.

Tickets are available from the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Box Office priced at £15.00. We will keep you posted on when these are released, don’t miss out, these concerts are always sold out.

The Snowman Returns

Following the success of the live production of the Snowman last year. We will be returning to ths nightime world of snow and magic again this year. On December 10th the band will be at the Jack Lyons Concert Hall at the University of York where we will reprise the performance for a new audience. We learned last year that many more wanted to see us and therefore there will be 3 performances in the afternoon.

Tickets will be available through the York University Ticket System and once they are available we will post an update.

Christmas CD Wrapped Up

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.