Brass in Concert Unveils Youth & Education programme for 2017

Further information on Youth and Education events at the 41st Brass in Concert Festival have been announced by the event’s organising team. These popular events, comprising Workshops and Taster Sessions, will once again be an integral part of the first day’s activities of the Festival, which will take place at Sage Gateshead on the weekend of 18-19 November.

Workshops will be led by Philip Harper and a team of tutors from defending Brass in Concert champion, Cory Band. Laura Jackson will lead the elementary group, which is expected to expand in size this year through partnerships with Music Partnership North (Northumberland), North Tyneside Music Services and Sage Gateshead’s CreativeLearning Team. At the conclusion of the Workshops (2.30pm), the participants will demonstrate the benefit of their learning experience in a free public performance on the Sage Gateshead concourse.

Brass in Concert Chairman, John Woods told A4B: “The Workshop performance is always one of the highlights of our weekend in Gateshead, but through new partnerships with various agencies in the North East we expect this year’s to be more spectacular than ever and urge prospective participants to register as soon as possible. Among the repertoire being performed this year will be works by Gordon Langford, who sadly passed away recently and whose music was very prominent in the early years of Brass in Concert, including his much-loved arrangements of Cushy Butterfield and Bobby Shaftoe, which were the set test-pieces in 1978 and ’79 respectively.”

The popular Brass in Concert Taster Sessions will also take place on the Sage Concourse from 11.00am-1.15pm, encouraging the general public to ‘have a blow’ on a brass instrument. The afternoon youth events will commence at 1.30pm with this year’s Action Medical Research Entertainment Champion, Wardle Academy Youth Brass Band, presenting its winning programme on the Concourse at 1.30pm.

Saturday’s Focus on Youth and Education is supported by Yamaha, and Natasha Homer of the company’s Band and Orchestral Classics Division expressed their pleasure in supporting the Workshops and Taster events, telling A4B: “We are delighted yet again to support the Youth and Education programme at the Brass in Concert Festival. Yamaha and Brass in Concert have enjoyed a very fruitful relationship over many years and we look forward to working again with the organising team and the many enthusiastic musicians of all ages and experience who will be involved in this year’s event.”

Application forms for the Workshops can be obtained from Hugh Stephenson at [email protected] or from the Brass in Concert website at www.brassinconcert.com/event/workshops-andtasters. Registration for the workshops commences at 8.45am on 18 November and the £5.00 cost includes a packed lunch.