The Con­ser­vat­orium Brass Band is a unique ter­tiary ensemble. Formed in 2006, this ensemble is based on the tra­di­tional Brit­ish Brass Band format. The QCGU Brass Band involves stu­dents from the Bach­elor of Music and Bach­elor of Music Stud­ies degree pro­grams and enables mem­bers to fur­ther develop their brass band train­ing in many areas includ­ing per­form­ance, know­ledge of rep­er­toire and ensemble direction.

After a morn­ing of con­duct­ing tech­nique ses­sions, del­eg­ates enjoyed the chance to relax and watch the QCGU Brass Band per­form, under the dir­ec­tion of Head of Brass, Greg Aitken.

The rep­er­toire for the con­cert was:

The Red Machine (Peter Gra­ham)
Song and Dance (Philip Sparke)
Beneath the Wil­lows (Philip Harper)
Con­certo for French Horn and Brass Band, 1st movt (Edward Greg­son)
Slaid­burn (Wil­liam Rim­mer)
The King­dom Tri­umphant (Eric Ball)

The Brass Band played a pol­ished and musical per­form­ance and con­grat­u­la­tions must go to soloists Dani­elle Rich (cor­net), Shan­nan Lawrence (flu­gel horn) and Sharn McIver (horn). The per­form­ance was not fault­less, but when listen­ing to a high qual­ity ensemble such as this it must be remembered that these are not pro­fes­sional musi­cians: they are stu­dents and they are learn­ing how to per­form in dif­fer­ent envir­on­ments. Greg Aitken has done an excel­lent job in train­ing his musi­cians: they are exposed to new and stand­ard brass band rep­er­toire, they are exposed to the exper­i­ence of being soloists with an ensemble (there were three stu­dent soloists on this pro­gram) and, in Ben Crocker’s case, to the exper­i­ence of conducting.

While listen­ing to this con­cert I couldn’t help but won­der why wind band con­duct­ors do not insist on their trum­peters play­ing cor­net when it is called for by the score (espe­cially when the score calls for a com­bin­a­tion of trum­pets and cornets–five trum­pets do not sound like three cor­nets and two trum­pets!) Alto sax­o­phon­ists have to double on sop­rano, flut­ists double on piccolo–why is there not more emphasis put on trum­pet play­ers to double on cor­net when required?

The intro­duc­tion of the Brass Band to the QCGU, led by Greg Aitken, will hope­fully help to cre­ate brass play­ers who are musi­cians with exper­i­ence of many styles of music, not just orches­tral stand­ards that many will not get the oppor­tun­ity to play again in later life.

Bravo to the QCGU Brass Band and Head of Brass, Greg Aitken!