Ovation for NYBB
The National Youth Brass Band recently appeared at Safffron Hall, under the musical guidance of Conductor Sarah Ioannides, following a week of hard work and music making in Wymondham for its summer residential. Sarah, Music Director of the Symphony Tacoma in Washington State, chose an innovative programme featured music from around the World and included visits to Russia, Canada, America, England, Italy, Scotland, Wales, Latin America and Japan. As well as exploring many varied countries of the World, the eclectic programme investigated the rich diversity of styes, harmonic colours and exciting rhythms within.
The concert began with a bang as the band dazzled with Robert Childs’ arrangement of Glinka’s popular ‘Overture Ruslan and Ludmilla’, performed at an impressive speed whilst retaining all the detail the youngsters had worked so hard to master. The concert continued in a more reflective mood with Kelly Marie Murphy’s ‘Into the Darkness They Go, The Wise and the Lovely’. This haunting piece was dedicated to the memory of Bramwell Tovey with whom the composer worked with when he was the Artistic Director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. Of course Bramwell Tovey is better known to the NYBB as its inspirational Artistic Director from 2006-2020.
A world première by Jack Yagerline followed in the form of an exciting work for brass band, inspired by open world video games. Jack was runner-up in the NYBBGB Composition Competition with ‘The Open World’ and the young musicians around the stands were clearly very taken with the piece and its musical nods to games such as “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim”, “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion”, “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild”, and “Super Mario Odyssey”. It was then time for guest soloist Scott Hartmann to take to the stage. Scott heads the trombone department at Yale University and is no stranger go brass bands having played with the Brass Band of Battle Creek for 25 years. The audience and band alike were clearly wowed by his bravura style playing, both in the first half in Gordon Langford’s much loved ‘Rhapsody for Trombone’ and later in Arthur Pryor’s ‘Thoughts of Love’ and Leoncavallo’s ‘On with the Motley’.
The first half concluded with Howard Snell’s arrangement of Respighi’s ‘Pines of Rome’ a true tour de force for the band as they performed the four movement suite of: Pini di Villa Borghese (The Pines of the Villa Borghese), Pini presso una Catacomba (Pines Near a Catacomb), Pini del Gianicola (The Pines of the Janiculum) and the well known Pini della Via Appia (The Pines of the Appian Way).
The second part of the programme began in Wales with the first of two further world premieres, this one by Daniel Hall, winner of the NYBBGB’s Composition Competition. ‘Dieu et Mon Droit (God and My Right)’ was written to honour the passing of Queen Elizabeth II and the coronation of the new regent, King Charles III. William Himes, the well-known American wind orchestra composer arranged the ballad, ‘Evergreen’ for trombone ensemble, which was played beautifully by the trombones of the NYBB in this World premiere performance.
The concert finale Peter Graham’s popular ‘Windows of the World’ truly encapsulated the essence of Sarah Ioannides’ themed programme. The work provided solo opportunities for several of the principal players to shine and drew such extended applause from the audience that the MD had to repeatedly return to the podium and give a further two encore performances. Commenting after the concert Director of Artistic Planning, Dr Robert Childs spoke warmly about the success of the course: “The band was on terrific form tonight and the 80 young musicians have worked tirelessly with Sarah and their world class tutors. Sarah and Scott have been inspirational role models and the players have a great deal to be proud of.”
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