| About Us |
Founded in 1958, the NYBBS celebrated its Golden Anniversary in 2008. To mark this special occasion, we undertook a concert tour of Japan visiting Tokyo, Kyoto, Hamamatsu and other cities.
The NYBBS operates under the umbrella of SAMA (The Scottish Amateur Music Association) and runs summer residential courses for young brass and percussion players from all over Scotland and beyond. The nominal age limit is 21 and each year around 150 young musicians gather to work and perform collectively.
Only the cream of the country’s young brass players make it into the National Youth Brass Band. Many then go on to study music at college and university.
We are interested in improving overall standards and encouraging all young people to be involved in music-making. To this end we have a Reserve Band (over sixty-strong) designed to help players who have not quite made the standard required to be in the NYBBS proper. In 2010 we are introducing a third band (the NYBBS Children’s Band) designed for the youngest and least experienced of our applicants aged 13 and under. This three tier system ensures that all applicants receive the training and encouragement best suited to their level of development.
Our high level of enrolments (despite the hefty course fee) is quite simply because players and, perhaps more significantly, their parents accept that the standard of tuition and the overall quality of experience is second to none. No other group in Scotland comes close to being able to provide a similar package.
Our staff are selected because of their excellence in the fields of education and music. All house (pastoral) staff members are experienced teachers in Scottish schools. All tutorial staff have risen to the top in either music education or in performance. Many have produced CDs as soloists or conductors and most are household names in the brass band world.
Each year following our summer course, which since 1994 has been held in St Andrews, the band gives at least one gala concert. In the early days these concerts were attended by parents and friends. While that is still true, we have now attracted a huge following audience and recent concerts (in St Andrews’ Younger Hall) have been close to standing room only!
More than just a concert! We were the first brass band ever to take part in the official Edinburgh International Festival and have performed countless Scottish, British and, indeed, world premières. The band has played in front of crowds of well over a thousand in prestigious venues and concert halls across Europe.
The NYBBS has enjoyed several successful foreign tours to Switzerland, Germany (twice) and Denmark as well as a tour of Orkney. Our 2008 tour of Japan, however, was unparalleled and a marvellous experience for seventy young musicians.
Brass banding is a fairly esoteric pursuit but the NYBBS is well known and well respected. We have broadcast many times on BBC Radios 2, 3 and Scotland as well as Radio Clyde. Our tour of Germany was made into a BBC Radio Scotland documentary entitled ‘Brass Over Munich’.
A group such as the NYBBS is expensive to run and we are always keen to attract sponsors. Any sponsor will receive the maximum amount of coverage we can manage. This will include adverts (if required) in our concert programmes as well as recognition and appreciation in any newspaper, magazine or other media articles. Most importantly, any sponsorship will benefit talented young Scottish musicians – a very worthy and undervalued group.
Please look round our website and have a listen to the tracks on the ‘BBC Radio Documentary’ page. You may not be a brass band aficionado but I defy anyone not to be impressed with our standards, our history, our performances and, with your help, our future. |