The arrival of winter has seen busy times at Gillingham Imperial Silver’s bandroom.

Recently, British Composer Award winner Simon Dobson spent time to put the band through their paces on his popular work ‘Penlee’ in a highly enjoyable masterclass.

Extra effort

The extra effort certainly paid off at the Wessex Winter Contest in Weymouth where the band claimed first place in the Third Section in coming fifth overall. In addition MD Paul Williams was awarded the South Wilts Cup given to the conductor judged to have the best musical interpretation of the score.

Appropriately, given the tragic subject matter of Penlee, the Wessex contest is held at Weymouth’s Pavilion, situated on the waterfront right next door to the Olympics sailing venue and just yards away from Weymouth’s own lifeboat station.

Inspire

Paul Williams told 4BR: "I would like to thank Simon Dobson for spending time to come to our bandroom and inspire us all with his wonderful score. The band certainly learned a lot from having the composer right in front of them."

I would like to thank Simon Dobson for spending time to come to our bandroom and inspire us all with his wonderful scoreMD, Paul Williams

Farewell

December will also see the band say a fond farewell to their American tuba playing librarian Jason Moore after landing a new job in Moscow.

Shorts

Paul added: "Jason has a habit of wearing shorts nearly all year round and so we are currently taking bets as to how long that will last in Russia!

Jason has been a band stalwart, keeping the library in pristine order, working hard helping with our presentation at concerts and always there when we needed him to put in an extra few hours work. We will all miss him."