Enderby Youth Band win five awards at National Competition
Posted on February 19, 2016 March 31, 2016 by staff
Enderby Youth Band competed in the "Action Medical Research Youth Brass Band Entertainment Festival of Great Britain" on Sunday February 14th 2016.
The Band's website reports that the competition, which was held in the Opera House at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, showcased nine of the leading Youth Brass Bands in the country.
Each band provided a 20 minute programme of music which was judged for musical quality and entertainment value by two adjudicators.
Enderby Youth Band presented a programme of music based on the music of "Queen" through which it told the story of an imaginary young Freddy Mercury's desire to learn to play a "proper" instrument at school – in this case of course, it was a Brass instrument!
All of this was delivered without chairs and music stands, thus giving the Band the opportunity to present a visually interesting programme.
The news item makes special mention of the Band's compere Chris Small, who dressed the part of the grown up Freddie Mercury (complete with a genuine moustache).
Chris energised the links and narrations between the pieces – and drew praise from the judges for his presentation.
The judges were highly impressed with the standard of the Band's programme, resulting in a total of five awards – a record haul for the band.
The three special awards were:
Best Horn section of the day
(James Gardner, Zoe Johnson, Molly Carter, Nia Millard-Law, Jess Lapworth)
Best Bass section of the day
(Ben Lewin, Harry Beach)
Best stage deportment.
The entertainment judge (Paul Duffy) described the band's movement around the stage both during and between items as "faultless", and summed up the performance as "hugely professional", telling the band members that they had "commanded the stage".
More compliments
The Music judge (Marieka Gray) was equally complimentary, finishing her adjudication remarks with the words:
"Bravo band and MD. Great programme – I really enjoyed this".
Along the way she complimented Josie Allen, Principal Cornet, on her beautiful sound and stylish playing.
There were also special mentions for the Euphoniums (Tom Jenkins and Laurren March), Joel Cane (Drum Kit) and Nathan Lewin (Bass Trombone)
The overall placing awards were 3rd in the Musical quality category and 4th in the Entertainment category. This placed the band 4th overall, their best result in this competition since 2013.
You can find the judges remarks here
The programme featured the following pieces
Bohemian Rhapsody (Part 1)
I want to Break Free
It's a kind of magic
Why not be part of the fun!
Enderby Youth Band is always open to new players – they rehearse on Sunday evenings at the Village Institute in Enderby between 6.00pm and 8.30pm.
No auditions are necessary; the Band are just a fun loving band that enjoys playing good music. Further details are available on their website www.enderbybands.co.uk
Beginners can learn to play with the Junior Band, and currently over half of the current Youth Band initially began playing with the Junior Band – a testament to the quality of the tuition that is provided to beginners.