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Hepworth In The Frame
At The English Nationals
The Huddersfield-based Hepworth (Cookson Homes) Band once again proved their ability to compete with the very best of English brass bands, achieving sixth place at the English National Brass Band Championships, held at the Guild Hall in Preston last weekend.
The English National Championships, now in its third year, bring together the top sixteen English bands to compete for the title, with the winners then earning the right to represent England at the 2009 European Brass Band Championships, to be held in Ostend, Belgium.
Support for the event continues to grow, with TV presenter, model and brass band enthusiast Melanie Sykes making an appearance to support the bands. Grimethorpe Colliery band retained the title for a second year, with Black Dyke second and Brighouse & Rastrick third. Hepworth’s sixth place meant that four of the top six places went to bands from Yorkshire.
Hepworth, directed by Ian Porthouse overcame the disappointment of its recent result at the All England Masters to deliver a confident performance of Robert Redhead's new work "Infinity" and the band is now looking forward to working with Ian again for the British Open Championships at Symphony Hall, Birmingham in September.
Later this month, on 20th July, Hepworth will join forces with Colne Valley Male Voice Choir and soprano soloist Julia Garbutt to appear at "Concert in the Park", a Summer Proms promotion in Belton, North Lincolnshire.
The Band Welcomes New Flugel
We are pleased to welcome flugel horn player Sian Linney to the band. Sian, from Pontypool, Wales is studying music at Huddersfield University.
Champion Brass "Spring Proms"
Uppermill Civic Hall
Saturday 12th April
The band took to the stage at Uppermill Civic Hall for a "Spring Proms" concert as part of the Champion Brass concert series, promoted by Phil Beckwith. As with all of Hepworth's concerts, the programme offered something for everyone.
The band launched straight into their signature tune "Pratty Flowers" followed by Philip Sparke’s "Concert Prelude". Rebecca Landon was the first of the bands soloists, producing a delightful interpretation of "Capriccio Brillante" with a display of poise and clarity throughout.
Mark Bentham has the knack of unearthing some unusual marches; his arrangement of "Circus Bee", an American screamer march is a real cracker. The band also likes to vary its concert programmes with something a little different, a septet led by the band's principal cornet, Rob Westacott, featured Claire Taylor, Sian Linney and Rob on flugel horn and trumpet in "Moon River".
"Fugue in D Minor" and the upbeat "Gat Happy" provided two lighter items before the cornet section featured in "Brassmen's Holiday".
Dean Jones "Glorifico Aeternum" based on the hymn tunes "Now We Thank We all our God" and "The King of Love My Shepherd Is" are featured provided an enjoyable finish to a fine first half.
"Hymns of Praise", commissioned by the BBC opened the second half before James Fieldhouse, the band’s Principal Euphonium, took centre stage to perform Leigh Baker’s "On the Seashore".
The famous Whit Friday march contest will soon be here and the band gave a run out their contest march "The Wizard", before changing the mood with Philip Wilby’s "The Day Thou Gavest".
Eric Coates "Dambuster’s March" got the audience in the mood for the bands Proms set, "Fantasia on British Sea Song’s", "Jerusalem" and the obligatory "Pomp and Circumstance".
Listen To The Band’s Broadcast
Friday 2nd May
Listen out for the band on BBC Radio 2, Friday 2nd May, 9.30pm when the recent recording session from Morley Town Hall will be broadcast. The programme includes Celebro, composed by Mark Bentham to celebrate his recent wedding, 'On the Seashore' featuring James Fieldhouse, Circus Bee, Brassmens Holiday, (a cornet trio featuring Rob Westacott, Claire Taylor and Katherine Bentham), Fugue in D Minor and Glorifico Aeternum.
Whit Friday
Friday 16thMay
Hepworth will be hoping to go one better this year at the famous Whit Friday marches around the villages of Saddlworth. Last year, the band picked up 4 first prizes, a second and a fourth to finish as runners-up, narrowly missing out on the overall prize by one point to the Brighouse and Rastrick Band. Good luck Hepworth!
Radio Broadcast
On 25th March the band was in Morley Town Hall to record a programme of music to be broadcast on Listen to the Band, Radio 2’s Friday night brass band programme. We don’t yet have details of the broadcast date but will let you know as soon as we do.
The bands programme includes Celebro written by the bands MD Mark Bentham to celebrate his forthcoming wedding, the march Circus Bee, principal euphonium James Fieldhouse is the featured soloist in On the Seashore with Rob Westacott, Claire Taylor and Dave Horan also being featured in Brassmen's Holiday. The programme concludes with Dean Jones Glorifico Aeternum.
Contest Platform
The Band again competed at the Yorkshire Regional Qualifying Contest for the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain at the beginning of March.
After our fantastic result last year we set out to try and qualify for the final in London’s Albert Hall once more. However, despite a performance described by brass band website 4 Bars Rest as probably the cleanest of the day, it failed to find favour with the adjudicators and we sadly missed out on a return to the Albert Hall this year.
The Band welcomed several new faces into the ranks for the first contest of 2008. Claire Taylor on Assistant Principal Cornet, Sam Fisher on Repiano Cornet, Richard Carradus on Second Cornet, Simon Thewlis on First Horn, John Smith on Solo Baritone and Ben Thomson on E-Flat Bass completed the team.
We now look forward to the next contest, the Whit Friday Marches in May. After very good results in recent years we hope for another successful evening competing for the Saddleworth Area title again.
We will also take part in the All England International Masters in May at Cambridge’s Corn Exchange, where the set test piece will be a brand new work from composer Martin Ellerby - ‘Malcolm Arnold Variations’
Following that we will compete again in the English National Championship at Preston's Guildhall in June. This relatively new contest features the highest ranked English Bands and now offers the English qualification place for the European Brass Band Championship to the winning band.
We will again return to Birmingham’s Symphony Hall in September for the British Open, where we will look to build on some positive results over the last couple of years.
The contest season for 2008 will end with the Brass In Concert Championships at the impressive Sage Centre in Gateshead. Having received a last-minute invite to last year’s event we have been asked to return and will have chance to prepare much better for this year's event.
concert Stage
Our first concert of the year took place at St Paul’s Hall in Huddersfield in February, where we presented a Hymns of Praise concert. A great night was had by all and we received many positive comments from the audience.
On Saturday 12th April we will be in concert at Uppermill Civic Hall as part of the Champion Brass concert series promoted by Phil Beckwith. The concerts prove very popular and involve some of the finest bands in the country. The concert is being promoted as a ‘Spring Proms’ with a last night of the proms style finale to the show.
We are also finalising details of more concerts for 2008 and full details will follow in later Newsletters.