Rotary Fellowship for Tony Small

Penclawdd’s Tony Small has been honoured by the Rotary Foundation with a most prestigious PAUL HARRIS FELLOWSHIP in recognition of over 50 years dedicated service to the community. News of the award came during Penclawdd Bands mid-week rehearsal with an unexpected visit from members of the Gower and Llwchwr Rotary Club (the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International). Speaking about the award Tony said, “They honoured me (a non-Rotarian) with this prestigious award. I feel very humbled to receive an award which has been conferred upon so many famous people, including American and Russian Presidents, Astronauts, Religious figures and World-class sports people among others.

This award follows a successful period for the Small family with Penclawdd Brass Band, directed by Tony, having recently delivered an excellent performance to win First Prize in the 2nd Section competition at Merthyr Tydfil. Tony commented, “It was a pleasure to conduct them and I congratulate every single member of the band! My good friend Alun Evans (Euphonium) deservedly won the best soloist prize with some sublime playing. Following medical issues which prevented him from playing solos with the band at the Regional Championships in March, it was so nice to hear Alun back to his best again! The last few weeks have been most memorable, my wife, Gillian, and I travelled to Lille, France, to hear the European Brass Championships. We were so proud our son Gareth won the Best Soloist Trophy after playing a fiendishly difficult solo so superbly in The Trumpets of the Angels by Edward Gregson, when guesting for the famous Black Dyke Band and helping them to gain the runners-up spot.”

The future continues to look bright as two of Tony’s cornet-playing grandchildren recently performed in their very first National Championships competition with the Lions bands from Sandbach, Cheshire. Tony said, “6-year-old Harry’s band won the Band with most potential and 9-year-old Tomas’ band won a Gold award.”

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