We can’t begin to say how proud we are to share some great news with you. Our band has been nominated for the 2026 RPS Inspiration Award. This is based on our work alongside Sean Chandler and our wonderful young d/Deaf musicians in “I Can Play with Brass Roots”.
Sean teaching at I Can Play with Brass Roots
We all know how inspirational Sean has been in this, after all who can forget the whole audience signing long to “Merry Christmas Everyone”. This is a wonderful opportunity for the band to come to a wider audience for this work. We have recently seen Lexi from the I Can Play group go for her first ABRSM examination and we look forward to seeing more of our players taking further steps in their playing.
What do we need from you? We need your votes. If you would like to see us win this award, then please visit the RPS Website and cast your vote for us. The link is provided below.
Another magnificent concert with our friends at Cory Band, what a night.
The night before Brass in Concert saw the World famous Cory Band back in York to run their BiC set before the contest. We are so privileged to be invited to share the stage with them when they visit and we love catching up with the players we have come to know so well.
This year was certainly eventful. Cory left Wales in some of the worst weather we’ve seen for a while and were really up against the clock when they got to York. A quick Pizza and rehearsal and we were good to go. The first set was Shepherd Brass and we hope we warmed the audience up for the treat to come. There was however a cloud on the horizon in the shape of Gavin Wynn Saynor, the Cory Eb Bass player who was still on his way from Anglesey in that terrible weather. Gav simply wasn’t going to make it. The only option, someone from Sheps was going to have to step in and “dep” for Cory Band.
There was a very quick run through of what was being played and Cory took the stage with Craig joining their ranks. Just when you thought things couldn’t get any more challenging, Phil Harper came on stage to discover that someone had helpfully removed Sheps music from the conductors stand, and had inadvertently taken the Cory band scores with them. The Cory opener was conducted without a score until a rather sheepish player returned the rest of the scores before the second piece started.
After the break it was onwards with the BiC set and Craig was overjoyed to find Gavin had arrived by this time and he wasn’t going to have to play the second half.
In the BiC set, we were treated to a time travelling journey back to the days of JB Arban in France. Anyone who plays a brass instrument will be familiar with the Arban while the non brass players had the Back to the Future references in the set.
Finale time saw both bands come together for a John Williams based set which was sadly cut short due to the limited drivers hours left for the coach drivers who had magnificently navigated Storm Claudia on their journey north. They certainly deserved a commendation for their work that weekend.
We are looking forward to seeing our friends from Cory again in 2026. Watch this space.
Having had great feedback on the Snowman over the last few years, the Senior Band embarked on a film based show where the centrepiece was a live performance of The Wrong Trousers starring Wallace and Gromit.
The story is one of intrigue, deceit and a criminal mastermind whose plans all come to nothing when the plucky Gromit saves the day. The band have loved working on this piece over the summer.
Sadly for some folks there were not enough seats in the theatre for everyone. Fear not, we will be back in 2026 to do it all again. We will also be on the look out for the next film score that is produced for a live brass band performance and rest assured we will be back with that one as well. Keep an eye on our social media for more information on this.
David Gregg sums up the Summer concert at Joseph Rowntree Theatre on Jun 14th
What more could you ask for? A full house for all our Bands at our twice yearly concert at the JoRo Theatre. Everyone came just wanting to be entertained and entertained they were!
As the audience were entering, our Brass Roots Band were playing on stage to give the first taste of what was to come later in the evening. Audrey Brown led our young and not so young learners through some uplifting and spirited music; Eye Of The Tiger, The Glory Of Spring, following a lovely Spring day, and finishing with Europe’s The Final Countdown. What a superb opening to the evening. The majority of these players have only been playing for several weeks but what a great sound came from them. Fancy a go yourself? It’s really not that hard. We are particularly looking for learners. These good people are our future and we ignore them at our peril!
The main part of the Concert started at with The Academy Brass, led by Richard Wilton. There must have been around 50 players all playing superbly at a great level. An arrangement of The Pirates of the Caribbean opened their set and what a sound they made from quite a difficult piece. What more could you ask for after that? Well none other than a timeless ABBA Medley. Everyone of the tunes was a cracker. Praise too must go to the young flugelhorn player for his solo in it. Again our Academy Band is a good mixture of ages all of whom are looking to progress.
Next up were our prizewinning Youth Brass Band. Recently returning from their magnificent 1st place in the National Youth Brass Band Championships in the Performance section, they really did show off, and so they should. Total quality, class and style with Craig Brown conducting them. Starting with the march Westward Ho! and then followed by the Scandinavian folk song Gota, they oozed confidence. The next 2 pieces were straight from their national performance. Dry eyes were in very short demand when, certainly my star of the evening, Abbie Laslett played a heart rendering solo in I Don’t Know How To Love Him. Absolutely gorgeous, no argument. They then finished with that long lost favourite of the Mamas and Papas, California Dreaming. What a way to finish. The audience certainly thought so and they left to rapturous applause.
Now ifyou want entertainment, and who doesn’t, The Concert Band were on next and they brought it in bucketfuls. Anyone who has seen their conductor Mike Pratt before knows what to expect. But really Mike? Yes ,he is a very good conductor but he also throws in vast amounts of dancing, well sort of! He opened their set with Goldcrest, a Salvationist March, that said a lot about the intentions for the rest of their session. Quick, full on and played with the cornets on top form. The trombones weren’t bad either. Next up were 4 more modern, pop if you like, pieces. A Communards number, Don’t Leave Me This Way, leading on to one of my all time favourites, Roberta Flack’s Killing Me Softly. Beautifully played with great dynamic range. Tears again for me. Then Geno from Dexy’s Midnight Runners. Upbeat it certainly was. Audience participation was also included. Even the Lord Mayor and his wife were giving it some. The last piece by The Concert Brass, Shut Up And Dance, was a cracking finisher. Fantastic playing, daft conductor type dancing by Mike and overall a superb ending for a truly entertaining set.
What a shirt Mike!
After the interval it was time for the top end music with our Shepherd Brass Band, Richard Wilton leading them.
Our basses preparing for the second half.
As always our Championship Section Band put on an overwhelming performance for the second half. Opening with You Can’t Stop The Beat from the film Hairspray it set the scene for what was to come, sheer style and musical class. Next up was lovely piece called Meditation Breathe, another salvationist piece who’s title reflected what the music was all about. Calm, cool and just so nice. Now a Solo. A superb Bond movie opening piece, Live And Let Die played by our Soprano cornet David Nichol. A very, very stylish rendition as well. Full of feeling and atmosphere. Great. Korobieniki was next up, a Russian folk tune played with gusto. Then the John Williams classic film theme Jurassic Park. This is where the taps were fully opened and rich, full sounds emanated.
And then onto their final piece, Somewhere from West Side Story. Glorious, sentimental and full of the deep rich sounds of wonderfully written music. For the 3rd time this evening tears appeared. Top class music from a top class Band. Sheer bliss.
After the raffle was drawn, the massed bands of The Shepherd Brass Band Organisation all crammed onto the stage to leave us with a great upbeat musical number called Band Together. How appropriate to finish on because this what our Organisation is about, togetherness.
We would love to welcome former players and friends of the band at our 20 years celebration. We are celebrating 20 years of sponsorship from Shepherd Group this year and on September 21st we continue the celebrations with a dinner dance at York Racecourse in the Dante Suite in the Ebor Stand.
The dinner starts at 7:30 pm and ends round about midnight. There is car parking available for those who are driving.
The dinner is a 3 course meal with Coffee and the festivities continue with a disco. There are of course options available for the vegetarians who want to attend. The cost of the meal is £40 per person and tickets can be purchased via a direct bank payment to the Band account, the details you will need are as follows:
Account name : Shepherd Building Group Brass Band
Sort code : 40-52-40
A/c number : 00035218
When making a payment please put use the code PTY20 followed by your name so we can identify who is coming.
Please make payments before the 31st August 2024. If things change, he we can offer refunds for payments made before 31st August, however because we need to place the orders for food, we can’t offer refunds after August 31st.
We got some really special news this week when we were informed that a project the band is running alongside the National Centre for Early Music was shortlisted for a prestigious Brass Bands England award. The awards is the Band Project of the Year and the project shortlisted is “I Can Play with Brass Roots”.
I Can Play is a project that is run through the NCEM that seeks to break down barriers to making music for the D/deaf community. Brass Roots is the beginners band within the Shepherd Group Band organisation.
The Shepherd Group Brass Bands have always been an inclusive and welcoming organisation and when Sean joined the band, he suggested the idea of introducing children from the D/deaf community into the band. When this was suggested at a committee meeting, we jumped at the chance and shortly after our first new players from I Can Play joined Brass Roots and the project has grown from there onwards.
Anyone who came to our performances of The Snowman in December last year will remember Sean Chandler our Principal Cornet player leading the whole audience in signing to “Merry Christmas Everyone”. We then had some of our “I Can Play” ambassadors on stage at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Christmas concerts leading the audiences there in signing along to the band.
It would be something special to see the award go to our I Can Play with Brass Roots team. Sean Chandler and Audrey Brown are at the forefront of this, but we have players from Senior Band along for the rehearsals sitting in with the players and guiding them so it really is an organisation wide effort. If you have a couple of minutes spare, please drop into the Brass Bands England website, and vote for this great project.
Of course, this is just one of the many outreach projects the band has initiated. We also have the monthly Project Band where players from across North Yorkshire and some from further afield come along to rehearse more challenging pieces of music. This is another idea that is being picked up by bands across the country and we are pleased to see our ideas for broadening participation being used nationally.
Tickets are selling fast for our celebration of 20 years with Shepherd Group as our sponsors. This is a rare chance to hear the premiere of a new piece of music composed specially for all the bands to play together. Don’t miss out on this one
2024 sees the 20th anniversary of our relationship with Shepherd Group as our sponsors. Over that time we have benefitted from first class rehearsal facilities and have grown the band organisation to something we are all justifiably proud of. So we are going to be celebrating.
We have commissioned Liz Lane to compose a piece of celebratory music that represents the bands and the company who support us. We have had several workshops where Liz has worked with each band storyboarding our feelings about the band, what we get from it as players and as a band family as a whole. Liz has also been allowed to visit the Portakabin production site where she drew inspiration from the machinery used in the production of the Portakabin product lines.
On May 21st, players from each of the bands in the organisation got together in the band room for the first full run through of the piece. Liz was there to hear the work and has gone away with a couple of ideas for final tweaks. It was great to hear this come together and there are a few real surprises in store for the audience.
This new composition will receive its premiere at the celebration concert the bands are holding at York Theatre Royal on June 29th 2024. Tickets are selling fast for this concert so you will need to head to the box office if you want to hear the performance. Tickets can be obtained via the link below.
Liz has worked with many bands and is composer in association with Grimethorpe Colliery Band, writing music for their recent Brass in Concert set performed at the Glasshouse in Gateshead. You can find out more about Liz and her approach to composition at her website.
On March 23rd, the Youth Band headed off to Cheltenham where they took part in the National Youth Championships of Great Britain. They competed in the Yamaha Performance Section where they faced a stiff challenge from well established bands like Elland Training Band and Pembrokeshire Music Service. They performed really well and played with confidence. Those of us who were unable to get to the performance on the day were able to watch the live stream of the contest on the WOBPlay platform and the recording will be available there should you wish to catch up.
The band were unlucky not to be in the prizes on the day, but came away with a Gold Award with the judges saying their performance was “based on the most solid of banding basics”.
A solid result and a really great performance. Well done.
This morning the Shepherd Group Brass Band hosted their first community “Project Band” rehearsal of 2024, opening our doors to over 40 local brass players. Led by expert MD Richard Wilton, and members of the Shepherd Group Senior Band, the rehearsal focussed on original competition repertoire for brass band, putting the spotlight on Peter Yorke’s The Ship Builders Suite and Goff Richards’ Hollywood! Thanks to everyone for coming down… See you again in February!!!
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