The first Youth Band was formed in 1969 by Des Marsh, who is still actively tutoring younger members today, and membership of both bands and those still too young to play in the ensembles stands at approximately 50 children.
The rest of the tutors are either teachers or players from within the Northop Silver Band. If you are interested in letting your child learn to play a brass instrument (or percussion) then please contact us on northopband@hotmail.co.uk and we will be happy to provide further information.
Northop Silver Band fully believes in, and is totally committed to the musical and social development of the children of Northop and the surrounding areas. We provide a safe learning environment for youngsters to learn to play a brass instrument, and provide small group tuition as well as larger ensemble opportunities.
Many of our past members of the Youth Band have gone on to perform with the senior band. There are currently eight members of the senior band who have been members of the youth band in the past. Some of our players have gone on to perform with the National Youth ensembles, Regiments of HM Forces and some of the UKs most prestigious muscial conservatoires.
The current musical director of the Youth Band is Bernard Thelwell and Graham Williams and John Williams are joint MDs of the Training Band.
North Wales Brassband Associations' Solos , Duets and Quartets Competition 2010 at Caernarfon
Northop Youth Band was represented by six players at this years competition.
First to play was Lewis in section 3. He gave a beautiful rendition of ‘Somewhere’ on the cornet. This was followed later by Jack’s nice playing of ‘ The House of the Rising Sun’ on soprano.
Meanwhile Matthew was waiting to play downstairs in Section 1. Emily (who was playing the piano for us) only just made it downstairs when Matthew was called to play ‘Macushla’.
Section 2 followed and both George and Owen had a late draw, so while the ‘adults’ went for a drink, they found a quiet place for a warm up. George was drawn 16th and played ‘Drink to me only’. This was followed by players number 17, 19 & 18 (in that order!) before Owen played at number 20. He gave us a fine account of ‘Stardust’.
To bring the long morning to a close (there were over 20 competitors in each of sections 1, 2 & 3) Daniel played upstairs in section 5. He gave us a lyrical rendition of ‘Melancholy Mood’.
The afternoon started with the under 14 duets, where two set of brothers from the Band were having their own mini competition within the competition! George and Matthew were first with their lovely playing of ‘All Through the Night’. Lewis and Owen played last in this section giving us a jazzy account of ‘American Patrol’.
The under 14 Air Varie was next, Owen played an excellent performance of ‘Men of Harlech’. Daniel was competing in the under 18 Air Varie section and he gave a good performance of ‘Wiederkehr’.
This was the end of the competition for the Youth players so they went to listen to, and support, our ‘senior’ entry, Aled.
Before the results a very special presentation was made to Uncle Jim, who had recently stood down as Chairman of the NWBBA after many, many years of service. Our Youth players are very fond of Uncle Jim as he sits amongst them and helps them in training band. We would like to thank Uncle Jim for all his hard work and look forward to him helping us for many more years.
Results for our Youth Band members
Section 1 (24 entries) Matthew – 6th
Section 2 (26 entries) Owen – 1st
George – 9th
Section 3 (22 entries) Lewis – 3rd
Jack – 8th
Section 5 (6 entries) Daniel – 1st
Section 6 (7 entries) Lewis & Owen – 2nd
George & Matthew – 5th
Section 9 (6 entries) Owen – 2nd
Section 10 (4 entries) Daniel – 3rd
Congratulations to these 6 players for achieving such fantastic results and a special thank you to Emily for accompanying us all so well.