The Southern Counties Youth Band recently held its third annual residential course, where they were led by conductor and composer Paul Lovatt-Cooper.

Paul was paying his first visit as he led the band through an exciting range of repertoire, including some of his own compositions.

Unique performance

In addition to rehearsing works such as Philip Sparke's 'A Malvern Suite' and Paul's own brand of high-energy music, he also led a percussion workshop and gave a presentation to the full course giving an insight into composing for both brass bands and television.

All this and he found time to join a unique performance of 'The Acrobat' to raise funds for the Stephen Sykes' campaign on the Swanee Whistle!

The band responded enthusiastically to Paul's energetic and inspirational leadershipCourse spokesperson

Inspirational

A spokesperson told 4BR: "The band responded enthusiastically to Paul's energetic and inspirational leadership.

They made fantastic progress over four days and performed superbly to a packed audience in the end of course concert in the Anniversary Hall at St Catherine's School in Bramley."

The band responded enthusiastically to Paul's energetic and inspirational leadershipCourse spokesperson

Highlights

Highlights of the concert included the percussion feature, Kevin Tuck's 'Summon the Spirits', and a stunning rendition of the 'Lament' from Karl Jenkins' 'Stabat Mater' by solo euphonium Alex Crick.

The SCYB will be back in September for regular monthly rehearsals in Worth, near Crawley and plans are already underway for another residential course next Easter.