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The History of The Bands
St. Helens Youth Brass Band (Conducted by Lynda Nicholson)
The LEA originally formed the Band in 1979 as the St. Helens Music Centre Brass Band. Despite falling victim to budget cuts in 1990, it has continued to develop and prosper independently, now renamed the St. Helens Youth Brass Band. Over the last few years the organisation has flourished to the extent that a Training Band and a Beginners’ Band have also been formed.
The Band is a registered charity, and its success is due to a considerable amount of hard work and commitment from the young musicians and their parents. Running costs are met by various fundraising activities held throughout the year.
The Youth Band currently has approximately 50 members, aged between 12 and 19 years old, the majority of whom are pupils of the Band’s Musical Director, Lynda Nicholson, currently a peripatetic brass teacher in the St. Helens area.
The Band is very proud to have produced several players who have been invited to join the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain. They are also encouraged to join local brass bands in and around St. Helens, with many progressing into some of the premier bands in the country, including Besses o’ th’ Barn, Black Dyke, Fodens, Marple, Sellers International, and Wingates.
The SHYBB commissioned Howard Snell to write Excelsior! in 1998, with funds provided by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of England. The piece is dedicated to Lynda Nicholson and the Band and was given its world premiere in May 1999 at the Theatre Royal, St. Helens, conducted by the composer. The work was subsequently selected as the test piece for the Third Section of the 2000 National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain.
The Band has recently made two successful tours abroad, they travelled to the French Alps in July 1998, Austria in July 2000, Switzerland in 2002 and Paris in 2004. The Band hopes to continue the European Tour in to the foreseeable future.
In February 2000, the BBC invited the SHYBB to perform on the famous Blue Peter programme. The Band has made a number of commercial recordings, along with several appearances on BBC Radio 2’s Listen to the Band, Radio Merseyside, GMR Brass and BBC North West Tonight. The SHYBB has also appeared on Sky TV, whilst performing pre-match concerts before crowds of 10,000 people for St. Helens RLFC at the Knowsley Road stadium. In February 2002 the SHYBB was filmed by Granada, whilst demonstrating the latest Yamaha technology for ands and solo performers.
As well as giving frequent performances in the St. Helens area, the Band performs regularly throughout the North of England and UK; recent concert venues include Southport Arts Centre and the Queens Hall, Widnes. High profile engagements have included appearances at the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, at London’s Royal Festival Hall, Regent’s Park and St.James's Park. In September 2000, the Band was invited to perform at the prestigious Great Northern Brass Arts Festival held at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.
The SHYBB has appeared with a number of renowned soloists, including Roger Webster, Simon Cowen, Nick Hudson, and Mark Bousie.
The Band has won the National Youth Brass Band Championships of Great Britain on five consecutive occasions between 1997 and 2001, winning the Intermediate Class in 1997, Advanced Class in 1998 and 1999, Open Class in 2000, and Premier Class in 2001 and 2002.
In February 2001, the SHYBB was the first youth band to receive a special award from the Worshipful Company of Musicians, for showing remarkable achievement and promise.
In July 2001, the Band participated in the Music for Youth National Festival at the Royal Festival Hall, London and they were announced as winners of the Open Class, being awarded the Outstanding Performance Award.
In the summer of 2002 SHYBB was extremely privileged to be invited to play for the Queen during her Jubilee Ceremony. SHYBB, which represented the Youth Brass Band Movement as National Champions in the Youth Section, alongside the four national champion bands (one from England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland) played traditional themes such as "Boys and Girls Go Out to Play". These pieces were all linked and played at different locations on the procession from The Mall to St.Paul's Cathedral. Later all five bands united and played at Smithfield Market.
SHYBB had an intense year in 2003. The band not only played at many local and self-organsied concerts, but also played at "The Sheriff's High Ball" at Knowsley Hall. The Band was also involved in a cultural event arranged by many musical organisations, in which SHYBB joined other youth bands and The Bollywood Brass Band on two occasions. The later concert was at the Bridgewater Hall.
SHYBB also participated in a joint concert with the Brass Band from Cambridge University. The Band also took part in the first Brass at the Guild Youth Section in 2003, and proudly returned home as champions.
St. Helens Training Brass Band (conducted by Lynda Nicholson)
It became obvious by late 1994 that there was a need for another band in the organisation. The demand to join the Youth Band meant that there were not enough places for everyone who wanted to join.
The Training Band was set up in February 1995. It has developed from a handful of players to a full strength ensemble in its own right.
The Band is conducted by Lynda Nicholson and has a membership of over 40 young musicians, aged between 7 and 15 years of age. Players audition to progress into the Youth Band when there is a vacancy.
The Band has experienced playing in a number of festivals and competitions, including the Music for Youth National Festival, gaining a second place in the 1997 Wigan Music Festival, and third place in the 2000 NWABBA (Preston District) Championships.
The Band has also given a number of concerts in the local area, including a very successful joint concert with the Haydock Male Voice Choir in aid of the Parkinson’s Disease Society.
Since 1998 the Training Band has taken part in the Fleetwood NWCBB Championships (Youth Section). In 2003 and 2004 the Training Band has achieved first place. Whilst in 2003 the Training Band were champions in the Junior Section at the National Championships.
The Band now operates an annual residential course, in Wales. This is used in preparation for the Fleetwood contest and is always a successful and useful event.
St. Helens Beginners’ Brass Band (conducted by John Burke)
The Beginners’ Band is the most recent of the groups in the organisation. It was started in January 1997. It is the last piece in the realisation of the plan to have a structured system to introduce young musicians to the fun of banding. John Burke, a peripatetic brass teacher for Wirral Education Authority, is the inspirational conductor of the Band.
The members of this Band are all beginners, some having only been learning for a few months. They follow a full course of instruction, which means that they will be able to join the Training Band after approximately one year.
As the Beginner's Band has developed and matured, it has made more public appearances and has even progressed to solo concerts, the first of which was for the Willowbrook Hospice in St.Helens. Also The Band has had its first taste of Brass Band Contests as it entered its first in 2003 and gained a very commendable 3rd place.
The Organisation of the Bands : The Committee
A committee elected annually at the AGM runs the Band. The committee is made up of three officers: the chairman, secretary and treasurer, alongside several parent committee members. The Band members are also actively represented on the committee by a number of elected band representatives. They are invited to all committee meetings and play an important role in the affairs of the Band. They produce a newsletter each term called ‘Brass Connections’ that reports on the Band’s achievements and previews the forthcoming events. This provides an important communication link between the organisation and the public. If you would like a copy of the newsletter then please use the "Contact Us" page to get further details.
St.Helens Youth Brass Band : "Excelsior!"
In 1998, the SHYBB was awarded a National Lottery grant to purchase both a new set of brass and percussion instruments, and also to have a piece of music commissioned from Howard Snell. Also, as part of the grant, Howard visited the Band to give two workshops. In the first, he spent the morning session working with the Band on a number of pieces and then in the afternoon session, the SHYBB invited players from local youth bands to join them in a discussion with the maestro on general playing techniques. The second workshop focused on the new commission entitled ‘Excelsior!’. The piece is dedicated to Lynda Nicholson and the Band and was given its world premiere performance in May 1999 at the Theatre Royal, St. Helens, conducted by the composer.
The Band performed the piece when it won the Open Class at the National Youth Championships in February 2000 and also at the 2000 Great Northern Brass Arts Festival. ‘Excelsior!’ was then chosen as the test piece for the Third Section of the 2000 National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain, held at the Royal Albert Hall, London.
‘Excelsior!’ was written in 1998 at the request of Lynda Nicholson, a musician I have known and admired for many years, for the St. Helens Youth Brass Band.
The title, which means ‘Ever Upwards!’ represents the challenge that faces all young musicians playing music. The first movement, a solid-sounding ‘Salute’, although it leads directly into the ‘Overture’, is also to be used by the Band as a signature fanfare for their concert programmes, when appropriate.
The ‘Overture’ presents some stiff challenges for players, while the third movement ‘Souvenirs’ goes even further, requiring a high level of musical sophistication from the players; starting casually the tempo quickens until the music swirls almost madly…until sanity returns, although with a few backward glances.
The music leads, with only a hesitation, into the final movement ‘Hymnus’ subtitled with the original motto of St. Helens ‘ex terra lucem’… ‘out of the earth comes light’…a reference to the arts and crafts of glass making which have been so important to St. Helens. The central part of the movement invokes the atmospheres of light and colour, which we associate with glass. The final moments of the music challenge the players to strive ‘ever upwards’ to provide the fitting conclusion to the piece.
All the movements of ‘Excelsior!’ can be played separately for concert or contest use. My intention was to stimulate the players but also to give them, and the listeners, as much enjoyment as possible.
The piece is dedicated to Lynda and the Band, and also to the memory of Sir Thomas Beecham, St. Helens’ most famous musical son and one of England’s finest musicians and musical benefactors.
© Howard Snell 1999
Howard Snell
Howard Snell studied at the Royal Academy of Music. In the first part of his career, he was Principal Trumpet in the London Symphony Orchestra. As a trumpet soloist he recorded both in the studio and on BBC TV. He was also for some five years the Chairman of the Orchestra, a time at which the Orchestra’s entry into the Barbican Arts Centre was negotiated.
He left the London Symphony Orchestra in order to develop a career in conducting, founding his own ensemble, the Wren Orchestra, which linked up with London’s Capitol Radio to give hundreds of concerts and broadcasts. With them he made commercial recordings of a wide range of repertoire, from Haydn and Mozart, to Copland and Gershwin. In addition he has conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the City of London Sinfonia, the London Mozart Players, the Manchester Camerata and the Ulster Orchestra.
Throughout his career, Howard Snell has maintained a strong interest in brass and brass music. He has conducted the LSO Brass Ensemble at the Barbican and the former Philip Jones Brass Ensemble at festivals and in recordings for Decca/Arco, in addition to giving many concerts and recordings with his own ensemble. In the late seventies he returned to brass bands, where he had begun playing as a child. Over the subsequent years he has worked widely with brass bands, developing Desford, Britannia/Foden, CWS (Glasgow) and Eikanger Bjorsvik of Norway, among others, to the highest level, as well as providing, as an arranger, a great deal of material previously unknown to band audiences. Latterly he has received commissions for compositions for brass bands. Since writing ‘Excelsior!’ for the St. Helens Youth Brass Band, the Tenor Horn Society commissioned a suite for Tenor Horn and Piano in 1999, entitled ‘Bagatelles’. The most recently completed work being ‘Images of the Millennium’, a thirty minute piece for Speaker, two brass bands and percussion for the Leyland Band and Richard Evans.
Howard Snell is still active in teaching, and is a Professor at the Royal Academy of Music after four years at the Guildhall School of Music and then twenty years at the Royal Northern College of Music. His book ‘The Trumpet’ has been very warmly received. Elgar Howarth has written that ‘It is a book not just for trumpeters or brass players but for all performers. For the trumpeter it presents a pedagogy as complete as I have seen in print.’ Howard Snell is currently engaged on a further volume aimed at all instrumentalists, in addition to preparing books about ‘Writing, Arranging and Scoring for Brass’, and about ‘Conducting and Conductors’.
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