NYBBS bands end their week in style

The National Youth Brass Bands of Scotland – after a great week of music making in their 64th year – rounded off their summer school in style with three superb performances from the respective bands at the Albert Halls in Stirling in their end-of-course concerts.

First up was the Children’s band under the baton of musical director Alan Fernie. The band, made up of children between the ages of 9-13, showcased a programme with a Scottish twist, with all the composers of the music having a connection to our beautiful country.

They opened the show with a work by borders-based composer Cameron Mabon entitled Gold Rush which was very fitting as the piece was written back in 2021 as part of the SBBA composition project in connection with Creative Scotland who celebrate their 20th anniversary this year. That was then followed by a lovely rendition of Kenneth Downie’s difficult work In Perfect Peace.

Horn tutor Stuart Black then led the band on a Scottish march which was written by Alan Fernie for Abbey Brass Jedforest in 2019, titled A Jethart Snail after a particular sweet you can get in Jedburgh.

The band then moved onto their big work for the concert, taking Eric Ball’s classic work Indian Summer and playing it alongside four new pieces composed, once again, by Alan Fernie to impressively tell the story of cowboys and indians – A Frontier Romance with the story narration given by some of the kids from the band. 

The youngsters closed their concert with a piece which was written for the Children’s band in 2018 by Paul Lovatt-Cooper. The energetic Slam Dunk was started with supreme confidence by the band’s percussionist Oscar Platt.

They did have one more item up their sleeve, however, as they calmed things down to encore with Alan Fernie’s beautiful tribute to Scotland, The Rolling Hills of Home.

It was a fantastic showing by the youngsters and their MD which set the marker for the next two bands.

In the evening it was the turn of the Reserve band under the baton of John Boax and the Senior band with MD Ian Porthouse.

The Reserves started off with a great rendition of Andrew Duncan’s arrangement of The Cheeky Wee Two Step by Michael Mulford, who was actually present in the hall to hear the performance. Next came the beautiful My Bonny Boy from Ralph Vaughn Williams’ English Folk Song Suite, very fitting as it is the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth this year.

Leonard Ballantine’s arrangement of Joyful Joyful followed before John invited trombone tutor Charlie Farren to conduct a great performance of Sandy Smith’s arrangement of The Mask of Zoro.

The band then moved onto a lovely arrangement of Baby Mine by Leigh Baker which featured a very apt visual addition on the big screen at the back of the stage – a selection of baby photos of some of our very own NYBBS staff/leaders like Tom Allan, Carrie Boax, Alan Fernie and Ian Porthouse just to name a few.

NYBBS/SBBA are always keen to see new music being played and someone who has provided a couple of items in the last few years is cornet tutor Gareth Bowman. This is a trend he continued this year by taking the classic march Slaidburn and putting a Latin American twist to it with Slaidburn Goes Brazilian which he also conducted.

The Reserves ended their set with two high impact pieces in the form of Daniel by Salvation Army composer Barrie Gott and Overdrive by NYBBS friend Paul Lovatt-Cooper which rounded off a great showing from the band and a great start to the evening.

NYBBS Seniors took to the stage with MD Ian Porthouse who had put together a programme in which every piece had some connection to the band’s former Musical Director Emeritus, the late great Richard Evans. This was the first summer course without the inspirational figure, but the band certainly gave a fitting tribute.

Goff Richards’ Strike up the Band got the show off to a high energy start before Neil Cross  – former NYBBS course director and close friends of Richard – took to the stage to give a lovely tribute to the man.

The band then continued with a great performance of Phillip Sparkes’ popular work Music for a Festival before bringing solo horn player Andrew McMillan to his feet to give a lovely rendition of Evergreen. (Andrew had won the NYBBS Seniors solo contest earlier in the week.)

Next was a performance of the only work to ever be written for band by William Mathias, Vivat Regina, before transitioning into a beautiful performance of Elgar’s Nimrod which was also a personal favourite of Mr Evans. 

The band closed proceedings with one of Goff Richards’ best arrangements for band, the timeless classic Disney Fantasy, featuring superb cornet and trombone playing from Calum Blair and Anna Biggart respectively.

As with the other two bands, Ian had one more piece up his sleeve in the form of Leigh Baker’s All Night Long, featuring Calum Blair once again as well as Angus Ritchie on euphonium – and not forgetting some choreography in the cornet section!

Just when we thought that was it, the Reserves took to the stage again to join the Seniors for one more piece. NYBBS Children’s band MD and composer Alan Fernie had written a special march entitled Richard Evans “Thanks Boss” as his own personal tribute to the king of swagger himself. The combined band closed with a performance of this great new work, conducted by Alan himself – and the only way to describe it would be 100 per cent Richard Evans!

The concerts were a fantastic end to a fantastic day of music by the three bands. After everything that has gone on over the last few years, the hard work of the SBBA and NYBBS teams and the amazingly talented youngsters have shown that here in Scotland there’s much to be proud of!

• Many thanks to Stuart Black for compiling this report. A video of the concerts will be posted shortly on the SBBA YouTube channel.