Conductor and educator Chris Spreadbury is ensuring that musical brass band seeds are being planted in primary schools in the Devon and Cornwall region — with the hope that they will soon bloom into inspired young performers ready to play with local brass bands.

Chris is the MD of Lympstone Band and has many years of education experience, returning to Devon in 2022 after spending four years in London managing the peripatetic instrumental team at Wandsworth Music Service.

BandStars

In May last year he set BandStars, a small company that now teaches over 175 primary school pupils each week in eight schools, with plans to expand even further.

Chris has been joined by David Gray who is a primary music specialist working in Torbay who is the Composer in Residence, as well as inspirational tutors Christy Smith, Julie Dobson and Matthew Hawkins.

Incredible success

"It's been an incredible success, and simply shows that children love playing brass band instruments in small groups,"he said.

"The ambition is to give the movement in the region a much-needed boost by helping youngsters on their first steps and ultimately getting them into local community bands."

He added: "The immediate success has been amazing, but I also want to create career opportunities for passionate teachers who share our vision.

We deliberately get the youngsters to play together in small groups — learning about reading the music and appreciating what their friends are doing with them. Once they can play a couple of notes we get them working together."

It's been an incredible success, and simply shows that children love playing brass band instruments in small groupsChris Spreadbury

More want to join

He added: "So far we have over 175 pupils learning in small group lessons across eight state primary schools in Devon and Cornwall. Each school has its own brass band (ranging from 20-35 members) and each week more children want to join.

Now we are determined to build on the success, so watch this space."

Find out more:

To find out more about BandStars, go to: www.bandstars.co.uk