News

Ever Ready Brass Band in double celebration with Durham University Brass Band

(9 June 2003)

Gala welcomes Ever Ready Brass Band and Durham University Brass Band, for the opening of the third Durham Brass Festival. This is a double celebration as it also marks the foundation of the University of Durham’s new Centre for Brass Band Studies.

To celebrate this auspicious initiative, Durham Brass Festival has commissioned a new composition by Martin Harry, Composer in Residence at the University that will be premiered on Sunday 15 June. Ray Farr will conduct the Ever Ready Brass Band alongside Music undergraduate Nathan Hamer, who will conduct the recently established Durham University Brass Band in a piece appropriately titled ‘Midsummer Marriage’.

Ever Ready Brass Band, the Northern Regional Champions, are one of our most renowned and exciting bands. Appearing regularly at Gala they are superb entertainers and consummate musicians. They have a long association with conductor Ray Farr who needs little introduction to UK audiences.

As an internationally known conductor, arranger, lecturer and adjudicator Ray studied at the Birmingham Conservatoire and the Royal College of Music. His diverse roles have included co-principal trumpet for the BBC Radio Orchestra, conductor of top bands such as the Grimethorpe and the Ever Ready, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and guest teaching at many universities and conservatoires internationally.

The programme will be as follows:

Durham University Brass Band
Prelude for an Occasion: Edward Gregson
Suite Gothique, Op. 25: Leon Boëllmann
A Moorside Suite: Gustav Holst
Concert Piece: James Curnow

Guest soloist: Roger Webster
Gaelforce: Peter Graham

Ever Ready Brass Band
Chivalry: Martin Ellerby
Cornet Concerto: T. Aagaard-Nilsen

Guest soloist: Roger Webster
Journey Into Freedom: Eric Ball

Massed Bands
Midsummer Marriage: Martyn Harry
Crown Imperial March: William Walton

For more information please contact:
Gayle Jackson, Marketing Assistant, tel 0191 3324050, gjackson@galadurham.co.uk
Jan Cawood, Public Relations Officer, University of Durham, tel 0191 3340018

1. The Department of Music at Durham is one of the leading centres for the study of music in Britain. There are currently about 140 undergraduate students studying Music and 35 postgraduates.
2. From October 2003 new pathways in brass band studies will allow students with an interest in brass band music to pursue their studies either as part of their undergraduate degree course, or as a detailed focus on particular aspects at taught masters level. The revised BA (Hons) Music degree programme will offer the opportunity for undergraduates to specialise in Brass Band Studies within the context of a broader degree programme. In addition, there will now be an MA in Brass Band Studies as part of the MA in Performance Studies, which can be studied full-time or part-time.
3. Throughout June and July Durham Brass Festival 2003 celebrates brass as a wonderfully diverse instrument with concerts by leading jazz, latin and classical ensembles as well as workshops and master classes.
4. In addition to Martyn Harry’s commission Durham Brass Festival has commissioned a new work from acclaimed Canadian composer John Warren. This will premier on 22 June at a performance in Durham Town Hall and has been specially written for jazz trumpeter Mark Nightingale and seven of the region’s leading brass band instrumentalists.