West Lothian Schools Brass Band
West Lothian Schools Brass Band was formed in the early 1970’s with the purpose of providing an opportunity for the many young brass band players in the West Lothian area to perform the best of brass repertoire.
The band is one of Scotland’s premiere youth groups with an impressive list of results at national and international levels. These include ten times British Youth Champions ( including a hat trick of victories in 2003, 2004 and 2005) and three times European Youth Champions. They are current Scottish Youth Brass band champions, adding to their previous hat trick of wins in 1985, 1986 and 1987, Gold Award Winners at the International Music Festival in Sydney in 1996 and the first band to be awarded the BBC Radio 2 Youth Brass Band of the Year in 1998.
The band did not participate in the National Youth Brass Band Championship this year, but is intending to compete in other contests later in the year.
The band provides opportunities for players aged between 12 and 19 years old. The West Lothian Schools Brass Band has released a series of five Cds including their latest release, ‘Earthrise’ - click here for more details. A new CD was recorded early in 2006 and should be available later in the year - watch this space.
The band is a credit to the excellent instrumental music tuition programme which has been established in all of West Lothian’s Schools.
The band has also performed concerts with many international brass soloists over the years including Don Lusher, Patrick Sheridan, Steven Mead, Sheona White, Roger Webster and the Child’s Brothers. The band have toured abroad to Australia, North America and Germany.
As a result of a twinning arrangement between West Lothian and the people of Hochsauerland, Germany, the band visited the Music School at Hochsauerlandkreis in 2002. The band were very well received, and the music school was so impressed by the band’s concerts, that they formed their own Brass Band who came to West Lothian in October 2003 ( click here for more information if your German is up to speed). The West Lothian Schools Brass Band were honoured to have been invited to return to Germany in October 2004 to taking part in Sauerland-Herbst 2004, one of the biggest brass festivals in the world.
See the Germany Trip Report pages to see how it went!
