The Lions Youth Brass organisation is currently riding the crest of a wave after their successful start to 2014.

The band is based in Sandbach in Cheshire, and consists of 114 players from 35 schools in the South Cheshire area.

Brass at the Guild

In February, under the baton of Nigel Birch, they came third at the Brass at the Guild contest in Preston, whilst in March they performed in the UK wide Music for Youth competition — and now wait to hear if they have progressed to the next stage of the contest.

Newcastle

March also saw the Junior and Beginner ensembles enter the Newcastle Festival of Music; with the Beginners, under conductor Chris Thompson, placed third in the Under 14s section, with a band whose average age is just 8!

The Juniors (average age of 12.2 years) under the baton of Tom Hancock, went on to win the section and were then placed third in the Under 19s event later in the day.

Salford

April saw all three bands head to Salford University to compete in the National Youth Brass Championship Finals, where the Juniors were in fine form once more, picking up a Bronze in the Junior Band Section.

The Beginner Band also put in a superb performance of their programme in the Beginner’s Section, which took the audience on a 15 minute musical tour of Great Britain, which resulted in them being awarded the ‘Band Showing Most Potential’ by judges Richard Evans and Michael Dodd.

April saw all three bands head to Salford University to compete in the National Youth Brass Championship Finals4BR

best performance

Finally, the Youth Band competed in the Championship Section, and was delighted with their magnificent second place finish, with Nigel Birch describing it as the ‘best performance the band has ever given.’