Top brass in town for Newbury toe-tapper

COLD Ash Brass are presenting a concert on Sunday June 2, at 7pm in St Nicolas Church Newbury.

Performing with them in this concert are Wantage Band, one of the UK’s top rated brass bands.

Wantage join them on the back of a second place at the prestigious Senior Cup competition in Blackpool’s Winter Gardens.

Cold Ash Brass have strong links with Wantage. Cold Ash conductor Jemma Johnstone plays solo horn for Wantage Band and was recently named best tenor horn player in the London and Southern Counties region.

Cold Ash Brass was formed as recently as 2003. A large part of their objective has always been to give young people a place to pursue their brass playing, which they have done very successfully over the years, and they will be proudly showcasing three of their youngest talents at the concert.

Ask anyone about brass bands and they will probably recall a village fete or a Sunday afternoon in the park.

But brass bands are so much more, with some 30,000 players participating in 1,200 active bands in the UK. Of that number about half choose to compete in the National Championships, arranged in five divisions acrosseight regions, with bands such as Black Dyke, Brighouse and Cory ultimately vying to be called the best band in the country.

Wantage themselves are ranked a remarkable 19th.

But banding is not all about competitions. Nothing beats performing in front of a live audience. As the bands both hope to show in this concert, the brass band repertoire is uniquely broad.

“We will be offering everything from classical transcriptions to popular arrangements, traditional Irish folk tunes to modern brass band original compositions,” said Paul Saunders from Cold Ash Brass.

As a finale to the concert the two bands will join forces under the batons of first Jemma Johnstone then Wantage’s Chris King.

Tickets for the concert are available online – go to coldashbrass.org.uk and follow the link, or email coldashbrassevents@gmail.com. Alternatively, tickets can be bought on the door. Doors open at 6.30pm for the concert at 7pm.