Audley & Lions In Fundraising Combo

Audley Brass and Lions Youth Brass have recently performed a joint concert to help with their respective fundraising efforts. The concert raised £905 which was split between the two organisations.

While Audley recovered some funds from their recent appearance at the National Finals, Lions Youth are now nearing their £25,000 target for a once in a lifetime performance at the European Championships.

Tom Hancock, MD of Audley Brass (who also conducts the Lions Junior Band) told A4B “I am enormously proud of our growing partnership with Lions Youth Brass having spent 20 years there as a player, tutor and conductor. I have a fantastic relationship with Nigel Birch. He very generously purchased our Finals test piece ‘Episodes’ to help with our costs, and we will be returning the favour by purchasing their Europeans piece!

We have strong links with past Lions players now enjoying their senior banding at Audley and there are six players (pictured) currently performing with both ensembles.”

Nigel Birch, MD of Lions Youth, added: “I am delighted that Audley Brass and Lions Youth Brass are developing a great partnership. I see Audley as an ideal organisation for my players to develop their music making and also have the opportunity of being involved in different experiences from those they have at Lions. I am also delighted that Tom is developing his own conducting and growing with the success of Audley. He is keen and dedicated and couple that with the knowledge and experiences he has been involved in, I would expect his conducting career to continue to thrive.

At Lions we will continue to support players into Audley Brass and through this reinforce our bond. I would like to thank them for the generous offer to purchase our European test piece and look forward to a range of great joint events in the future.”

Due to the success of the concert, there are several joint ventures in the pipeline for 2019 including Audley tutors leading a workshop day with Lions Juniors, a Youth Nationals/Area contest preview evening as well as the joint concert becoming an annual event.