Irish Youth Brass Report
by Brian Murphy and Trevor Johnston
The committee of the Drogheda Brass Band were thrilled when news came through late in 1997 that no fewer than nine members of the prize winning band had been accepted into Irish Youth Brass, the new brass band for the young in this country.
A completely new venture for this country to have any form of a National Brass Band, the lucky members will get to represent their country on a national, and hopefully later, on an international basis. The fact that nine members of the band, who of course had just returned from their historic feat of winning the Grade 2 section in the North of Ireland Band Championships, have been accepted shows exactly why the Drogheda Brass Band has been thrust to the forefront of brass music in Ireland.
The auditions were held in various centres around the country last October, and the nine lucky members are cornetists Gareth McDonnell, Yvonne Cunningham, Neil Conlan, Andrea Rock, Trevor Johnston, Daniel Cassidy and Vivienne Lambe with Richard Rock on Eb tenor horn and Darius McGann completing the neptet on Eb bass tuba. The Irish Youth Brass members had their first get-together on Friday 12th December 1997, spending the weekend under the expert guidance of Mr. Dennis Wilby, the conductor of Irish Youth Brass, and again on January 30th 1998, where they gave their first public performance on 1st February in the Prince of Wales Hotel, Athlone to a packed hall.
We can but hope that everyone present appreciated just what had been achieved in five short days - it is no mean feat to prepare an hour long programme of such high musical quality in so short a time, with an entirely new band, a new conductor, and to then give such an excellent first public performance.
First Public Performance
Combining popular music with original brass band pieces, Irish Youth Brass sported a very, very impressive programme for their first concert. Including a four-movement piece by the conductor, for the occasion and unique to the band, together with some less known brass band works as well as a championship-level piece to round off the evening, their first public performance went splendidly, lasting for well over an hour.
First Concert Programme
- We've Only Just Begun
Williams/Nichols, arranged by Dennis Wilby - An appropriate choice for the band's first publicly performed piece.
- Medieval Dances
Dennis Wilby - An original piece by the band's conductor, this is the first performance of this four- movement piece.
- One Moment in Time
Hammond and Bettis, arranged by Bernaerts - A rendition of Whitney Houston's hit for the middle piece of our programme.
- Pasticcio
Roland Cardon - Very much in the vein of Mozart, this delightful piece from Holland gets its first airing on this side of Europe at Irish Youth Brass' first concert.
- I Don't Know How to Love Him
Lloyd Webber, arranged by Graham Walker - Irish Youth Brass makes full use of its three flugel horns in this popular piece from musical "Jesus Christ Superstar".
- Pennine Moors
Darrol Barry - For the highlight of the evening and its first performance in Ireland, Irish Youth Brass give a sparkling performance of championship-level test-piece, "Pennine Moors".
The Conductor
Born in Yorkshire, Dennis Wilby was Principal Trumpet with the BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra in Belfast for ten years, during which time he also played with the City of Belfast Symphony Orchestra, taught at the Belfast School of Music and began his brass band conducting career with the Agnes Street Band. On returning to live and work in Yorkshire he played trumpet with the Yorkshire Concert Orchestra, the Northern Concert Artists' Orchestra and in many big bands which accompanied the stars of show business (Johnny Mathis, Bruce Forsyth, Gene Pitney, Danny La Rue, Les Dawson, Rolf Harris, etc.).
He has adjudicated at all the Area Championships in the UK, a National Final in London, Pontin's Championships, in Northern Ireland, Isle of Man, Norway and, of course, our own National Championships in 1992 and 1994 as well as the Feis Ceoil in Dublin. He is also a prolific arranger of brass band music with publications in England, Belgium and Switzerland. He has had his own radio series (Viking Bandstand) and has been editor of Brass Review since its inception. He has worked as an Instrumental Tutor of Brass with the Wakefield Education Authority for over twenty years.
At the 1996 Annual Conference in Ardee he worked with a brass band of over eighty players and most recently he was one of the conductors at the Southern Region Workshop in Mitchelstown.