Double delight for Lewis as bands win top spots in contest
LEWIS Wilkinson, the current musical director of Parc and Dare Brass Band, is absolutely ecstatic over the achievement of the two sextets that he conducted at the recent Foden’s Online Brass Band Contest.
The competition included sections for Under 18 Slow Melody, Over 18 Air and Variation, Over 18 Slow Melody, Over 18 Air Varie, a Percussion Section and an Ensemble Section.
There were more than 70 initial entries which were whittled down by the preliminary judges to manageable numbers in the Finals.
The winning ensemble, the Calvert Ensemble, played Elegy and Caprice by Morley Calvert which had been arranged for sextet by Dr Robert Childs.
Both the sextets were from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where Lewis is studying for his masters degree and the players involved in the winning sextet were Jack Hoof and Ffion Morris on 1st and 2nd cornet, Jack Lythaby on Horn, Ruth Mellor and Josh Dickens on 1st and 2nd Euphonium and Gregor Spence on Tuba.
In second place, also conducted by Lewis, was the Gloria Ensemble who played Gloria by Kenneth Downie.
The students playing in this ensemble were Jack Hoof and Chloe Eagleson on 1st and 2nd cornet, Megan Giles on Horn, Steve Moore on Trombone, Josh Dickens on Euphonium and Rhys Michael on Tuba.
The adjudicators for the Ensemble Secion were John Barber, Michael Fowles and Bramwell Tovey who is musical director of the BBC Concert Orchestra and also conducts the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain.
There were 10 competitors in the Ensemble final and in 3rd place was a Tuba Quartet from the Shirley Band, which is very close to Birmingham.
A GUS Quartet took the 4th spot and 5th was the Gus Trombone Quartet.
The other ensembles in the Final were two more from the Royal Welsh College namely RWCMD Journey Ensemble and RWCMD Militaire Ensemble.
The other ensembles were 1st Old Boys Trombones, Brass From The Barn and The Little Brass Factory.
Seeing the Shirley Quartet in 3rd spot brought back a whole heap of pleasant memories to me as I guested on Solo Horn with Shirley Band on a number of occasions during the 1960s – wow, how time has flown!
Nice to see that they are still in good company.
Lewis Wilkinson and all his players in the sextets can feel quite elated as they were playing against players of high quality and seeing two GUS ensembles behind them in the pecking order proves that, as GUS are ranked among the top ten bands in the UK. Well done to all! I also recall Alan Gifford, who was playing in the GUS trombone Quartet, playing with the Band of the West Mercia Constabulary when we were touring the West Country around 2008.
He was a young lad still at school and playing with Amington Silver Band when he came as a guest player.
We all knew he would turn out to be a good ‘un!
He is now conducting
Amington Band and has qualified to take them to next years national finals.
Mentioning the National finals, Kapitol Promotions have announced that the finals for Lower Section bands 2021 are scheduled to take place on Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th of September 2021 - all being well!
The sections playing on the Saturday are Section 4 followed by Section 1 and on the Sunday Section 3 followed by Section 2 at Cheltenham Racecourse.