National Youth Band to celebrate ethos in music

The Easter Concert of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain will celebrate 70 years of history as well as the commitment to diversity and inclusion.

The National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain Youth Band has announced details of its end of Easter Course concert which will take place at Huddersfield Town Hall on Saturday 16th April (7.00pm).

The band will be led by the Dutch conductor Irene Anda and will feature guest soloist, Norwegian trombone star Grethe Tonheim.

Celebration

The theme throughout 2022 will be of 'celebration' of the traditions that have marked 70 years of music making as well as the positive approach by the organisation to issues of gender and ethnicity.

Irene Anda is a Bachelor of Music who studied at Augsburg University as well as at Rogaland Musikkonservatorium. In 2013 she was the conductor of the European Youth Brass Band during the festival event in Oslo.

For more than 20 years, Grethe Tonheim was the solo trombone of Eikanger-Bjørsvik and has taught at the acclaimed Manger Folkehogskule as well as performing with both the Bergen Philharmonic and the Oslo Symphony Orchestras.

She will perform a number works, including 'Icicles' composed by fellow Norwegian Anne-Grete Preus.

Inclusivity and diversity

The concert programme echoes the ethos of inclusivity and diversity — with works from the pen of the founder Dr Denis Wright to some from the movement's latest new talent. A composition by Irene Anda's musical mentor Maurice Hamers is also featured.

Dr Robert Childs' fine arrangement of William Grant Still's 'In Memoriam' will provide an emotive sense of reflection of the sacrifice of black American soldiers in defence of freedom at a time when basic freedoms were denied to them at home.

When it was performed in 1944, the celebrated New York Times critic Olin Downes remarked on its powerful 'simplicity and feeling, without affectation or attitudinizing'.

Incredible women

Paul Saggers new commission 'The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole' also celebrates the incredible work of the Jamaican born nurse who famously converted a hotel into a hospital during the Crimean war in the 1850s.

There is also a musical celebration of Maude Bonney, better known as Lores Bonney, who single-handedly piloted her biplane (without wireless) from Australia to England in 1933. 'Flight' has been written by Australian composer Louisa Trewartha.

Major works by some of the most celebrated compositional figures will also be performed — including Gilbert Vinter's 'Spectrum' and Peter Graham 'Dynasty'.

The concert programme echoes the ethos of inclusivity and diversity — with works from the pen of the founder Dr Denis Wright to some from the movement's latest new talent4BR