The International Summer School Brass Band

Taliesin Arts Centre
Swansea University
Friday 29th July

The International Summer School Brass Band Concert is acquiring something of a cult following, if the near capacity crowd that braved prevailing soggy external conditions to thread into the Taliesin Theatre on Swansea University campus is anything to go by.

Musical Director, Robert Childs, and a host of top tutors including Roger Webster, Ian Porthouse, (cornets), Nick Hudson (trombones), Owen Farr (horns), David Childs (euphoniums), Steve Sykes (basses) and Alan Horgen (percussion), together with resident pianist for the week, Steve Burgess, had spent the previous six days knocking the mixed-ability band of circa 60 players into shape for the free public concert.

The musical fayre for the evening reflected Robert Childs' artistic ethos throughout the week-long Course – light, fun pieces counterbalanced with serious repertoire for students ranging in age from 13 to those well past the qualification age for a bus pass. The conductor's relaxed, informal rapport with the responsive audience also underpinned the camaraderie of a Course to which, it is reported, two-thirds of the delegates return every year.

The enthusiastic band launched the concert with a spirited account of James Curnow's lively 'Fanfare and Flourishes', followed Roger Webster and Ian Porthouse's immaculate and stylish presentation of the cornet duet from the first two movements of Joseph Horovitz's ravishing 'Concertino Classico' – both soloists seamlessly living up to their world-class reputations.

The entire cornet section then acquitted itself well in Harold L. Walters' Schumann adaptation, 'Trumpets Wild', before the band reveled in the fun of Andrew Duncan's Loony Tunes tribute, 'Cartoon Classics' (complete with Fred Flintstone and Porky Pig representations). Two Peter Graham compositions were then aired; his lovely arrangement of the Maori song, 'Hine e Hine', producing a complete contrast to the animation of 'Cartoon Classics', and his 'Brillante' giving David Childs an opportunity to display the full armoury of his incredible command of the euphonium in a solo. Pyrotechnics indeed!

The audience was led to the interval by a triumphal and well-played rendition of William Himes' 'Procession to Covenant', after which the order of play was prefaced a raffle, drawn by Robert Childs, in aid of Stanhope Band's Brass Band Aid initiative to help ‘Make Poverty History'. The raffle and advanced orders of the soon-to-be-released Band Aid CD raised nearly £1,000, pronounced by the 12 members of Stanhope Band attending the Course as a good start to its appeal to help to build a school in Ethiopia.

Business over, the second-half of the evening kicked off in an up-beat manner with an idiomatic reading of T.J. Powell's march, 'The Bombardier', before we took to the skies in Steve Sykes' challenging arrangement of 'Fanfare and Flying Theme' from John Williams' familiar score to the film 'E.T.' The horn section, numbering Owen Farr, then stepped to the fore with Howard Snell's simply stunning arrangement of the second movement of Winter from Vivaldi's 'The Seasons' – the band allowing the music to just hang on the air. Music from Jerry Herman's 'Hello Dolly' picked up the pace nicely for the Course's bass tutor, Steve Sykes, to give Roy Newsome's well-thumbed 'Bass in the Ballroom' an airing. Everybody loves a tuba and, in the hands of Steve Sykes, there can be no more winning combination – what a sound!

Highlighting what a good teacher Steve is too, the whole bass section then performed his arrangement of Harold L. Walters' 'Forty Fathoms' before Kenneth Downie's attractive meditation, 'Shekinah', prefaced the final ‘official' item comprising three movements from Rodney Newton's 'Echoes of the East'. Importing the exotic and, at times, fast and furious folk music of Bulgaria and Romania to the damp Swansea evening, band members gave their various solo spots impressively and everyone caught the spirit of the final Gypsy Festival. As an encore, the band played the lively Amazonia from Peter Graham's 'Windows of the World', delighting in the shouts of "mambo!"

In his votes of thanks Dr. Childs included the organisers, Philip Morris and Niki Bland of Kapitol Promotions and received a public vote of thanks himself from Professor Jack Lonergan, a regular bass trombonist on the Course. 

A thoroughly inspirational evening and not one to be missed next year, come rain but, hopefully, shine!

Phil Edwards 

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