Well, the first two months of 2025 have flown by and already the GUS Band has been busy and hard at work rehearsing and preparing for another exciting year ahead. The Band’s diary is already filling up fast and there will be plenty of opportunities to listen to the band this year.
Helping the band put new and scintillating programmes together are two new members, Matthew Ball who joins us on the cornet front row and Tracey Holford who has joined the band on percussion. Both are highly experienced musicians. Matt hails from Bolton and his early musical experiences included playing with the famous Besses o’th Barn band. On relocating to Olney in Bedfordshire, he became principal cornet of Broseley Brass, (later to become Milton Keynes Brass) and he also plays trumpet in several Oxford ensembles. Tracey gained her early musical experiences playing with the Syston band and through the Leicestershire Arts Music Service playing in all their bands while at school. She then went on to play percussion with the Enderby and Kibworth bands and after finishing university, she became principal percussionist with the BBC Elstree Concert band.
Together with the rest of the team, the GUS Band has already completed its first engagements of the year, firstly on 2nd February, when it presented a regional’s test piece workshop for 3rd and 4th section bands at the Oxford Music Service Centre for Music. Delegates at the workshop were taken through a rehearsal of each of the regional test pieces before participating in a question and answer forum to conclude the sessions. Then, the band travelled to Crawley and made a welcome return to the Hawth Theatre on 22nd February, presenting a highly enjoyable evening’s entertainment. The next opportunity to hear the GUS Band perform will be next weekend on the 9th March, when we will be competing in our own Championship regional contest in Bedworth. Following this, a further date to put in your diaires is 5th April, when the band will be performing a Night at the musicals and movies at Kettering Arts Centre which will feature the bands Wizard and Oz Set from the 2024 Brass in concert programme. So, keep an eye out for concert dates throughout 2025 and come and be entertained by this world-class brass band.