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In one week’s time, at this very moment, we will be opening this year’s Celebration Concert at Lydney Town Hall! It promises to be an incredible evening of musical entertainment, where we will be celebrating twenty years of Lydney Training Band! You’ll get the first glimpse of our set for the upcoming Wychavon Festival of Brass where we’ll be hoping to defend our Third Section first place title, you’ll hear from the Training Band themselves, there will be a suite of solo performances from Training Band alumni within the Town Band, before an amazing massed band finale! Doors open at 5pm for a 5:30pm start. It would be amazing to see you there!  Earlier this year, we received a Community Grant from Lydney Town Council. This funding has allowed us to purchase a range of promotional display items for use by both Lydney Town and Training Bands to help promote the band and the town that we're so proud to represent. If you've come along to any of our concerts this summer, you might have already spotted them but we'd like to take the opportunity to show off our new additions and to express our thanks the Town Council for their support!
We’re incredibly proud of our Musical Director, Thomas Dunne for being shortlisted for this year’s Brass Bands England Conductor of the Year Award! Alas it wasn’t to be but congratulations to Katrina Marzella Wheeler for her win! Thanks to Samantha for this lovely photo!  The absolute very best of luck to our Musical Director, Thomas Dunne, who is currently in Durham for the 2025 Brass Bands England Awards where he’s been shortlisted for Conductor of the Year!!!  We’re really excited to be able to share the poster for next month’s Celebration Concert being held at Lydney Town Hall on Sunday 19th October! (…just under four weeks away ). As well as an evening of incredible music from both bands, we’ll also be marking the 20th anniversary of Lydney Training Band! Twenty fabulous years of introducing the joys of music and brass banding to aspiring new players from around the Forest of Dean! What an evening!!! We’re so pleased to say that our Brass and Organ Concert was a phenomenal success! Thank you so much to St Mary’s Church for hosting us last night and to everyone who came along! Shout out to Tom for his incredible solo performances, and to Samantha for her gorgeous Tenor Horn solo in Bless the Lord, O My Soul. Congratulations to David for the debut of his newest piece Nightfall Special thanks to Emily and Chris for helping out, and to James for stepping in as Repiano Cornet for the evening! Thanks to Emma and Krysten for these great photos! In order to put on a Brass and Organ Concert, you need a brass band and an organist…enter Ian, our Repiano Cornet! Over the last six months, Ian has worked tirelessly in preparation for this concert. He has arranged, written and adapted parts, practised at home, practised at St Mary’s, even found a little Cornish church to practice in whilst on holiday in July. His dedication and commitment to making sure that this concert was a success has been incredible - we are beyond grateful to him! Thank you Ian!!! Shout out to James, who stepped up from Third Cornet to cover the Repiano parts.  We had another rehearsal at St Mary’s Church on Friday evening in preparation for next weekend’s Brass and Organ Concert. Just one more rehearsal to go and then it’s showtime! Doors open at 6:30pm for a 7:00pm start on Saturday 6th September. There will be refreshments available during the interval and a retiring collection at the end! It was great to welcome Matt Rowe back to the bandroom last night as we start putting the finishing touches to our Brass and Organ Concert Programme. There’s just two weeks to go!  We’ve had a personnel shuffle in the Town Band! First-up: our flugelhorn player, Louise, has moved on to 1st Baritone. Louise joined the band four years ago and last year played a crucial (and starring) role in the band’s stunning win at the Wychavon Festival of Brass. In her place, Sarah Crowe has returned to flugel! Sarah rejoined the band two years ago and previously held the flugel seat for much of the 1990s through to the mid-2010s, including during the band’s Championship Section heyday in the early 2000s. We can’t wait to see the musical magic this pair will bring to their new roles! Shout out to James Dale who sat in on 1st Baritone during our summer concert season. It was massively appreciated!  There’s just three weeks to go until our Brass and Organ Concert at St Mary’s Church in Lydney on Saturday 6th September!  On Monday evening, we bid a fond farewell to Jessica who is leaving for pastures new...but we couldn’t let her go without a token of our immense esteem and appreciation. Jess is the epitome of a player who has come to music later in life and flourished. She joined Lydney Training Band in the late 2010s and within a few years had moved up to the Solo Horn seat. She has also been a regular attendee at Lydney Town Band rehearsals, taking on the extra challenge with gusto, and debuting on the concert stage with them last June. Alongside all this, we've also been able to celebrate her development as a player - most recently last November when she achieved a Grade 5 Distinction on Tenor Horn! Best of luck for the future Jess - we know you'll do brilliantly! First rehearsal in preparation for next month’s brass and organ concert at St Mary’s Church, Lydney. Join us on Saturday 6th September for an incredible evening of music, admission is free with a retiring collection. Doors open at 6:30pm for a 7:00pm start. It was a pleasure to welcome Matt Rowe to the bandroom last night as we continue our preparations for the Brass and Organ Concert on Saturday 6th September. Shout out to Liz, Rebecca, George, Julia and Duncan who also helped us out last night! Twas much appreciated!  We had our latest batch of Town and Training Band member merchandise arrive on Friday - doesn’t it all look fabulous. Thanks to Ian for organising!  |
