The Cory Band 'Virtual Youth Brass Weekend' has been hailed as a fantastic success after 71 young players from across Wales joined the world's number 1 ranked band on-line for two days of great music making and fun.

Enabled by funding secured from the Arts Council of Wales's National Lottery Fund, and run in collaboration with National Youth Arts Wales, the eager youngsters were split into two bands conducted by star euphonium player Glyn Williams, and Cory MD, Philip Harper.

Variety

They then went on to enjoy a variety of experiences; from full band and sectional rehearsals to masterclasses, a solo contest and plenty of fun social activities.

Speaking about the event Philip Harper told 4BR: "Everyone at Cory is only too aware of the loss of opportunity caused by the Coronavirus pandemic for all young people, and we were determined not to let this be a barrier in our ongoing work inspiring the next generation.

We had never done anything like this before so the learning curve was steep, especially on the technological and delivery side, but we've had some outstanding feedback which is a brilliant outcome for everyone."

Feel good

He added: "The players joined us from their homes, and we had 10 Cory players on hand to deliver expert tuition from their own homes too.

Of course it's never going to be comparable to being in the same room as each other, but there was still a real feel-good atmosphere bouncing around the internet over the course of the weekend!

I had designed some simple physical tasks for people to do in the frequent breaks too, so hopefully brains, lips and bodies were all kept active!"

Of course it's never going to be comparable to being in the same room as each other, but there was still a real feel-good atmosphere bouncing around the internet over the course of the weekend! Philip Harper

Solo competition

The Sunday afternoon also saw the hosting of a special solo competition.

Carys Wood (trumpet), Ben Hannaford-Waddington (marimba), Elliot Harrington (baritone) and Ffion Hill (trumpet) sent in video performances which were then broadcast to enjoy.

The judges, Helen Williams, Chris Thomas and Simon Howell gave supportive feedback before deciding that Elliot Harrington, a talented baritone player from BTM Band would win the special slate trophy.

At the end of the course all the players on the course were set 'homework' — which was to record one of the weekend's set pieces at home. These will now be edited together and released as distance videos in the near future.

Thank you

As Philip Harper concluded: "We want to say a big thank you to everyone for engaging with our project and for helping us innovate what we do in these challenging times.

Lots of people are asking when the next one is — so we'll have to see about that!"