The band is on currently on tour in Australia and has over 1800 followers on FACEBOOK. If you would like to join FACEBOOK and watch their progress, go to the FACEBOOK pages on www.facebook.com/blackdykeband and the system will then give you instructions.

On June 27th, in Preston, the band won the English National Brass Band Championship playing Paul Lovatt-Cooper's "Within Blue Empires". As Champion Band, we will now be invited to represent England in the European Championships which take place in Linz, Austria, between April 29th and May 2nd 2010.

Dr Nicholas Childs commented "Black Dyke showed, with some sublime solo playing and the quality of sound, why it will be welcomed at the European Championships. Our next goal will be to raise the money required to represent England at these prestigious championships."

Black Dyke Band is pleased to report that Eb Bass player Phil Goodwin, who was ill in hospital for over 4 weeks from the end of April to the end of May, is now back at home and making good progress on the way to a full recovery. Everyone was delighted to see Phil lead Delph Band, who he conducts, down the village for the Whit Friday parade last week.

Although not quite well enough to play for Black Dyke at the English Nationals at the end of this month, Phil is expected back in his rightful place with the band the following weekend, July 4^th, at the Deal Festival.

Nick Childs commented 'Phil has been greatly missed, a great tuba player and of course a member of the band for over 24 years, a bandsman to the core and a friend who will be welcomed on his return.' 

Black Dyke Band will once again present an open rehearsal at Morley Town Hall, this time for the English National Brass Band Championship newly commissioned test piece Within Blue Empires by Paul Lovatt-Cooper.

The rehearsal will start at 8pm on Thursday 25^th June and, as well as the open rehearsal and a full run through the test piece, Dr Childs will put on a short concert programme.

Admission is free and doors open at 7.30pm

Coverage of three of the elements of the Brass Festival 2009 is now available to view on the band's website.

Dr Nicholas Childs' inaugural lecture on the History of Brass Bands - The Golden Period, illustrated by Black Dyke Band, is available together with full coverage of the Gala Concert and an interview with Dr Childs.

The link is http://www.blackdykeband.co.uk/14/

4barsrest have included a full review of the upcoming Brass Festival at the end of this month. The link to their excellent report is:

http://www.4barsrest.com/articles/2009/1010.asp

On Sunday May 31st, there will be a presentation and informal recording of new compositions for brass instruments. Composers Philip Wilby and Emily Howard will be on hand to offer advice.

The music has been chosen from the British Trombone Society's recent composers competition, the junior department of the Royal Northern College of Music, and the Yorkshire Youth Brass Band. Performers include Stephen Sykes (Winner of the Radio 2 Brass Musician 2009), and The Black Dyke Trombone quartet and friends.

The session will be held in the Albert Room at Leeds Town Hall and begins at 12.45

Dyke Spotlight the Low End of the Band!

Saturday 30^th May will see the Black Dyke Band Brass Festival welcome all Tuba, Euphonium and Baritone players to a Spotlight Event. Those who attended last year's successful event enjoyed massed ensemble sessions involving over 60 players and a recital from Black Dyke soloists David Thornton and Joe Cook.

This year's festival has a focus on ‘Heritage' and the festival is pleased to welcome some special guests. Charley Brighton will be on hand to display and talk about his fantastic collection of vintage euphoniums. Also, participants will have the chance to meet a team of Black Dyke legends including Geoff Whitham and John Clough who will be on hand to chat to and answer questions throughout the afternoon. This event also offers a series of sessions including chamber music skills, performance techniques and general tips to improve low brass playing.

The event includes sessions which are:

  - Aimed at players of any age or standard  to participate or simply observe

  - led by Black Dyke soloists David Thornton and Joe Cook, and assisted by the Black Dyke Low Brass section - a team which boasts over 80 years of Black Dyke experience between them!

   - intended to inspire and stimulate players through practical classes on key skills used at contests and during concerts (including playing in the section and how to cope with nerves)

   - slightly different to last year - as well as a massed session, we will be splitting the participants into smaller ensembles, rehearsing separately and led by members of Black Dyke. The day will culminate with a performance from each group.

  - followed by a Gala evening performance by Black Dyke Band, the programme will include Peter Graham's Harrison's Dream, Philip Wilby's Euphonium Concerto (soloist: David Thornton) and a world premiere by Philip Harper. Tickets are £10 and available from Leeds Town Hall Box Office Tel 0113 224 3801 (but free entry to Spotlight participants!)

  - Held at Leeds Metropolitan University - Headingley Campus (LS6 3QS), James Graham Building, Ghandi Hall. Admission £5 Donation

David Thornton commented, "I was delighted by the success of last year's event and I think we have an even better day this time around. I'm particularly looking forward to the Q&A session with the Legends - John Clough and Geoff Whitham have some amazing stories about the band!"

Anyone interested in attending should contact David Thornton on thorntoneuph@hotmail.com or 07702 344 468 - giving contact details, playing details (including name of band, section of band, position played, any grades taken) and also which clef you are most comfortable reading.

Schedule

11.30 Registration

12.00 Warm-up and ‘building playing techniques'

12.45 Chamber music sessions (Participants will be split into small groups and rehearse music for tuba/euphonium/baritone ensemble led by members of Black Dyke)

13.45 Celebrity Recital (David Thornton and Joe Cook will perform music featuring electronics)

14.45 Coffee break - and a chance to view a fantastic collection of vintage instruments presented by Charley Brighton in the Jubilee Room

15.00 In Conversation with Black Dyke Legends - Nick Childs leads an informal Q&A session with legends including John Clough, Geoffrey Whitham and Derek Jackson.

15.30 Performance Session for Chamber Music Groups

16.00 Massed Finale to Tuba/Euphonium/Baritone Spotlight

16.30 - Charley Brighton and his vintage euphonium collection in the Jubilee Room

18.45 Pre - Concert talk by Philip Wilby, Peter Graham, Paul Lovatt-Cooper and Philip Harper,

19.30 Performance including Black Dyke Band performing live to film of Paul Lovatt-Cooper's Immortal and Rubbing Shoulders With Champions; World Premiere, Philip Harper's Willow Pattern; Philip Wilby's Euphonium Concerto and Peter Graham's Harrison's Dream.

Black Dyke Brass Festival 2009

Heritage Symposium

‘Partnering the Past and Fostering the Future'

History of Brass Bands the Golden Period

Inaugural Lecture - Professor Nicholas J. Childs

Friday, 29th May 7.30 pm Gandhi Hall

The repertoire played by bands has altered radically over many years. However, commissioning bodies have always been governed by a desire to attract the leading mainstream composers of the day to write original material for the medium.

The so-called 'Golden Period', spanning the period between the Great Depression and the Second World War, encapsulates this ambition at its most successful. A sequence of seminal works, by John Ireland, Gustav Holst, Herbert Howells, and Sir Edward Elgar revitalised the repertoire and placed amateur musicians in a place of honour within the British musical establishment.

In an illustrated lecture, Prof. Nicholas Childs and the Black Dyke Band place this music in its wider context, from the production of the first original band compositions in 1913 up until the death of Elgar in 1934.

The British Trombone Society is pleased to announce a partnership with the Black Dyke Band Brass Festival on 31^st May 2009.

Within the Festival the BTS will hold a massed blow, composer's collective and workshop and an opportunity to visit trade stands.

Registration takes place at 10.30am at the Albert Room in Leeds Town Hall in the centre of Leeds. A warm up will take place at 10.45 led by Brett Baker Chairman of the BTS and then at 11am Bob Hughes President of the BTS will rehearse the ensemble on two pieces to be played in the afternoon concert with Black Dyke Band at 3pm.

At 12.45 trombonists will have an opportunity to listen to a composer's collective involving the playing of new trombone works including pieces that were composed especially for the 2008 BTS composer's competition, as well as guest soloists performing new pieces for trombone the Black Dyke Trombone Quartet will also perform.

There will then be a further opportunity for a rehearsal of the trombone choir before the concert at 3pm.

The concert is free of charge to any BTS members as is the workshop in the morning.

For any enquiries re Trombone Workshop please contact Brett Baker brett.trombone@googlemail.com           0777 320 1736

Black Dyke Brass Festival 2009

Heritage Symposium

‘Partnering the Past and Fostering the Future'

The 2009 Black Dyke Brass Festival will be a special year in the band's long and distinguished history. The festival aims to pass on some of its hard-won core values to future generations, to place new music alongside established repertoire, and to counterpoint some stars of the future with legends of the past and present. This year's Festival marks the start of the band's five-year commissioning policy, which will culminate in 2014 with the premiere of a substantial new score by the leading international composer James McMillan.

The festival starts with an on-line lecture-recital as the band and its director give an illustrated overview of their 155-year history, beginning with rare music taken from John Foster's 1855 octet books, also music from the Golden Period, featuring Elgar, Holst and Ireland.  The band's lecture will be available as a worldwide educational resource on the Black Dyke website during and after the weekend. One of the over-riding ambitions at Queensbury is to involve and inspire young performers to aim at the highest level. Accordingly, there will be a young composer's workshop led by Paul Hamlyn Award winner Emily Howard, and a combined performance featuring Black Dyke in concert with the 60 young musicians of the Yorkshire Youth Brass Band. The British Trombone Society have accepted an invitation to participate in the Lower Brass Focus, when it is anticipated that 120 local players will join a sequence of daytime workshops, and we are pleased that New Music, including scores by Prof. Peter Graham and Philip Harper will feature prominently.

The Black Dyke Band stands at the centre of a worldwide culture, ranging from Australasia to Scandinavia and North America. Thanks to its wide legacy of recording and an increasing amount of internet performance, brass players around the globe regard its activities as a musical high-water mark, and we believe that by supporting its continuing activities, the social and musical values of the United Kingdom are equally well served.

We hope that you will enjoy this Festival, and would like to acknowledge our wonderful partnership with Leeds Metropolitan University and this year we are also supported by Heritage Lottery Fund, where our accent is firmly on ‘Partnering the Past and Fostering the Future'.

As part of the RNCM Festival in 2009, Black Dyke announced a ground-breaking five-year plan for its new Associate Composers. Although we are more than lucky in having a number of writers associated with the band's players, we all recognise the need to entice major talent from the mainstream world of classical music.

At their Brass Festival 2009, and later on, at the summer festival in Deal, the band will give the first performances of ‘Willow Pattern' by Philip Harper  Following the success of the Indian flavours of ‘The Legend of Sangeet' last year, Philip has looked to Japan for inspiration for this year's new work. Of course, the band movement might well claim Philip as one of its own, a talent well versed in the culture surrounding our best bands. Black Dyke's long-term plans hope to attract new composers to write something to be performed on a wider stage.  Just such a talent, and one just about to write her first piece for brass band, is Emily Howard.

Born in Liverpool in 1979, Emily was a youthful high achiever (including six consecutive years as British Junior Girls Chess Champion.) who subsequently studied maths and computational science at Lincoln College Oxford. Serious musical study has come later in her career, but she completed her masters' degree with Adam Gorb at the RNCM with a double distinction. Her music is characterised by a mature directness and an approachable modernity. Over recent years, she has been working regularly with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and her new composition ‘Magnetite', a 10 minute orchestral study into the internal structure of crystals. Commissioned by the Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008 for the RLPO, Emily was chosen as a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Composers 2008. Representing the absolute pinnacle achievement for young composers, this award provides the recipient with a three year salary to allow them to develop free from the day-to-day strictures of earning a living.

Emily herself has said

"I am absolutely delighted to receive a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Composers 2008. The initial phone call left me literally jumping for joy and I spent the next week eagerly awaiting the post for proof that I hadn't dreamt the whole thing! To be given 45,000 pounds with no hidden agenda equates to artistic freedom and for a composer there is no greater privilege. It is a life-changing event."

However, Emily is clear that she has a desire to keep her contacts fresh. She continues to work with youngsters, both in educational workshops run by the Manchester Camerata Orchestra, and teaching at the Junior College of the RNCM.  

I think it is good for students to write for performance if possible. I firmly believe that they will learn a lot more from the performance experience than from anything else - performances of your own music can be really inspiring and energising.

Technique is really all a composition teacher can teach. Orchestration for example, or serial technique, and I certainly do this. A teacher can also help by introducing and discussing in detail parts of the repertoire that the student is unfamiliar with. However,  I think that the best thing a teacher can do is to help a student who is stuck with a work by just saying the right thing (whatever that may be - it varies!) so that they are no longer stuck - you can see it in their eyes. Sort of like giving the student a creative spark, so that they can go off again on their own - after all, composition is very solitary.

The 2009 Brass Festival will feature some of these new pieces in a Composers' Collective Concert held in tandem with the Grove Brass Quintet. Emily's background has been formed by her mainstream classical origins. Like so many of her contemporaries, she has ambitions to compose music for professional orchestras. However, she has a broader interests and a genuine talent for writing for amateurs. Now she is planning her first pieces for Brass Band in 2010

Nicholas Childs' decision to commission James McMillan to compose a new score for Black Dyke to play in 2011 is a bold one. In April, 2008 the world premiere of McMillan's St John Passion was performed by Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra, and his opera The Sacrifice won the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Opera in May.  More recently, he won the British Composer Award 2008 for Liturgical Music. As Nicholas said at the RNCM Festival in January,

‘Commissioning James MacMillan to write a brass band score of substance has been at the top of many wish-lists over several years, and we are thrilled that he has accepted our offer to write something for performance in 2012/3. There is a composer in every generation who might have written for our movement, but escaped. We can learn so much from the orchestral world, and must always strive to attract established talents from sources outside our own comfort zone.'

This review of the new Naxos label CD with Black Dyke Band, of music composed by Philip Wilby,  appeared in the Yorkshire Post in March:

"Philip Wilby: A Breathless Alleluia. (Naxos 8.572166)

Breathless indeed. The alleluias come from Yorkshire-born composer Philip Wilby who has provided the Black Dyke Band with a dashing, syncopated toccata that gives the CD its title. This fine band, under conductor Nicholas Childs, relishes the challenges in a crisp performance of high energy. Wilby's talent for memorable melody is evident also in his deft Paganini Variations and the brightly coloured Concerto for Euphonium where David Thornton is soloist. There's much more, all of high calibre in a hugely entertaining programme. RC"

Black Dyke Band will once again present an open rehearsal at Morley Town Hall, this time for the Yorkshire Area test piece Salute to Youth by Gilbert Vinter. The rehearsal will start at 8pm on Friday 6^th March and, as well as the open rehearsal and a full run through the test piece, Dr Childs will put on a short concert programme.

Admission is free and doors open at 7.30pm 

Please note that the open rehearsal is Friday not Thursday as in the past.

John Doyle has returned to take up the Repiano Cornet seat at Black Dyke.  John said "I am truly excited about returning to my banding family, the way the band is run, the professionalism of its members and its forward thinking direction from the boss makes it unique".
 
He will take over from Lee Rigg, who has decided leave so he can spend more time with his family.  Lee commented  "I would like to thank Nicholas for giving me the opportunity to be a member of the band winning the Open and National and have some very memorable times."
 
Nicholas Childs commented "Lee is a terrific player and we look forward to giving him this space with his family and I certainly look forward to future appearances where Lee will be depping with Black Dyke as our number one deputy. Of course John Doyle's prowesses as a player need little introduction and we welcome him back and I am sure he will make a very significant contribution to the band and its activities."