Category: Senior Band

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Collaboration and Challenges at the Cory Band’s York Concert

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.

Craig Brown playing as a rep with Cory Band at the Jack Lyons Concert Hall

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.

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A Cracking Show Gromit

Gromit peeps from under the covers in the film as the band plays the soundtrack to The Wrong Trousers
Look Out Lad!

What a concert that was.

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.

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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.

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Vacancy for Soprano Cornet

Are you a Soprano Cornet player looking for a new challenge? We are on the lookout for someone to come and join us. We have a sensible mix of concerts and contests including thr Senior Cup in May and the Leicester Open in November. We also have collaborations with Cory Band and Grimethorpe Colliery Band over the next few months and will also be performing our popular version of The Snowman along with the original film in the run up to Christmas.

The band is renowned for our organisation with 5 bands under the Shepherd Group banner. We also enjoy first class rehearsal failities on the outskirts of York.

If this looks to be a challenge you would like to step up to, then please get in touch with the Senior Band MD Richard Wilton.

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Grace Pratt Memorial Concert

As many followers of the bands will be aware, Grace Pratt passed away earleier this year.

Grace is Mikes mother and banding was in her blood from an early age. Grace was a very talented cornet player herself and after marrying Ted Pratt her family could not fail to become brass players themselves.

The whole Shepherd Group Brass Band organisation wanted to pay their own tribute to Grace, someone who supported us through the years and who was a face we all looked out for in our concerts. The best tribute we can think of is to play the music she loved while raising fund for York Against Cancer, her chosen charity.

The concert will take place at 7:30 pm on September 29th 2023 at York Salvation Army Citadel and will feature the Shepherd Group Concert Band conducted of course by her son Mike and the Shepherd Group Senior Band. The music will be a celebration of Grace’s life and a reflection on the lives of those we have lost in recent years.

Tickets for this concert are avaialble via our Eventbrite page.

Register on Eventbrite
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Want to join our Cornet team?

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.

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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.

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Christmas in June!

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!

Sharon Greenfield sharing a joke with Sean Chandler.

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.

Karl Scarborough rocking the Christmas t-shirt

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.

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A chilly success!

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.

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Vacancies – BBb Bass

Following a number of signings over the past months, the band now welcomes applications for a BB Bass player to join our strong Bass Section.

We have a number of excellent Concerts planned for 2024 and beyond including another live performance of The Snowman.

What we have to offer:

  • Championship level banding 
  • Great concert-contest balance 
  • Fun contemporary music and the latest arrangements
  • Some of the best rehearsal facilities in the country
  • One of the largest banding organisations around, as recently featured in the British Bandsman 
  • A busy and lively social scene
  • Spring Festival Senior Cup, Blackpool 

The band practices on Tuesday and Friday evenings in York – however, our members travel from all over Yorkshire so lifts could most likely be arranged. 

For anymore information or an informal, confidential chat about the position, please contact Our MD Richard Wilton on 07973442249, richardwilton@nesyork.org 

Alternatively, feel free to message us directly through the bands Facebook page. 🎺🎼🎺

Please get in touch with Richard Wilton for further details.

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