Annual Convention 2008 Report
The weekend of 26-27 January saw members of the National Association of Brass Band Conductors gather at the Britannia Hotel, Bolton, Lancashire, for their annual two day convention.
This year’s convention had the underlying theme of ‘The Way Forward’ and tried to find the answer to one of the biggest problems in the brass band movement at the present time - how to bridge the gap from youth bands to the adult band world.
The weekend opened with a welcome to all the delegates by the association’s Chairman Walter Ritchie.
The association’s
President Dr Roy Newsome followed with a keynote speech that highlighted that
whilst the number of adult bands was going down this was not the case with youth
bands. Dr Newsome went on to say” We as adults have to try to encourage the
youngsters into the adult movement once they leave their youth band. Whilst the
better players will join the better bands, what of the remainder, where and what
happens to them. Hopefully through this weekend and in particular the question
time style forum may be able to answer some of the problems”,
Dr Newsome then led a conducting workshop ‘Sorting out those bad habits’, all delegates were encouraged to take part.
This was followed by
a presentation by the convention’s first guest speaker, Colin Duxbury, the
musical director of the Stockport Schools Senior Band. Colin highlighted the
number young people there was in all three Stockport School Bands and how
enthusiastic they all were. Whilst he conducted the senior band there was also
and intermediate band and a junior band. Students from other local schools in
the Stockport area all had the opportunity of joining and going through the
three Stockport Schools Bands.
The underlying word from Colin was that being the band both on engagements and rehearsals have to be fun.
Colin then conducted his band as a warm up before Russell Gray took over to give a conducting master-class with the delegates. The association was grateful to Russell who was standing in for Richard Evans was ill.
Four delegates stepped forward and no doubt gained valuable experience from the encouragement and advice given by Russell.
One of the biggest problems for conductors can be programme repertoire – the second guest speaker Ian Porthouse gave an in depth discussion about a large number of concert pieces and a number of young composers who were all writing new music and exciting arrangements. Not just music for the top end of the band world but music that could be also played by 3rd and 4th section bands.
He followed this
part of his presentation with a short talk about ‘The Conductor as a
Teacher’ an aspect of conducting that was of great interest to all the
delegates.
The first day closed with the question style forum – in the Chair was Iwan Fox from www.4barsrest.com and the guests answering the questions were Ian Porthouse; Richard Evans; Chris Wormald and Colin Duxbury. The question: What can an adult band offer a member of a youth band for them to consider stepping up to join? – in some cases the answer was very little. Boring music, boring conductor, no opportunities to play a solo, no social life which must take into account the age of the young person, spending week after week practising the same piece, telling a percussionist not to bother coming because the conductor does not need them at that rehearsal, being given the tail end of the better instruments, awful rehearsal facilities, the list went on and on. It was clear to all the delegates that many adult bands must look inward and say to themselves 'What have we to offer.'
On the Saturday night the National Convention dinner was entertained by guest speaker Richard Evans who went through aspects of his varied and colourful musical career.
The association opened the convention of the Sunday morning with annual general meeting. Dr Newsome was reappointed as President and Walter Ritchie as the association’s Chairman, Ted Howard and Martin Obermuller were both re-appointed as secretary and treasurer respectively and Chris Helme was appointed as the editor of the association's magazine The Conductor.
Paul Lovatt-Cooper,
composer in residence at Black Dyke
and lead percussionist followed with a fascinating insight into the Brass Band
and the Internet followed by some thoughts on percussion.
Every band, irrespective of the level the band plays at should have a publicity and marketing manager. David Kaye the President of Wingates Band gave a fascinating presentation about these two roles and the work he has done since the early 1990s. in this day and age of the financial difficulties in the brass band world he certainly gave all the members something to think about.
The two day convention closed with a short concert given by the Wingates under their musical director Andrew Berryman. Various members of the association were given the opportunity of conducting this famous band, all those who conducted the band and in most cases the first time they had had the opportunity of conducting a championship section band was an absolute thrill.
Before closing the convention the Chairman Walter Ritchie thanked Andrew and the members of the band for a wonderful performance which culminated with Johan de Meij set test piece for the 2005 European Championships Extreme Make-Over which the band played from the bottle and Marimba section which was super and brought the two day convention to a climactic conclusion.