Towcester Studio Band (TSB) – HaBiT project update!
Author: Kevin HawkinsPublished: 20th December 2023 08:57
In September 2023 Towcester Studio Board (TSB) announced the launch of a new project ‘Having a Blast in Towcester’. After several months of planning, Lottery Funded public funding from Arts Council England was made available to support Towcester Studio Band and Foden’s Band (No1 ranked brass-band in the world) in a new venture to provide opportunities to the community of Towcester and surrounding area to link, learn and engage in music making by providing inspirational events using the best there is in brass music.
Events that will provide new skills that can be applied to all aspects of life and inspire new music makers. TSB has been busy connecting with the community through this new outreach programme. Together with the help of Northamptonshire and Rutland Music Education Hub – led by Northamptonshire Music & Performing Arts Trust (NMPAT) – and the very best in brass, Foden’s Band, several key events were planned.
Workshops to enhance skills and build confidence, together with information for application during musical performance as well as daily life, were scheduled throughout the project timescales. The first key event was a Performance and Performance Anxiety workshop held in October. The workshop was delivered by Professor Roger Webster, an eminent cornet player and lecturer at Royal Northern College of Music.
Roger has occupied the principal cornet seat at both Grimethorpe Band and Black Dyke Band. The workshop was held in TSB’s band room and the audience all took away new thoughts and ideas on how to conquer performance nerves and anxiety. A very productive evening for all attendees.
The next key event is a workshop and concert day. The event will be held at Northampton School for Boys (NSB) using the Cripps Hall Theatre on Saturday 13th January. Registration for the workshop opened a few weeks ago and was very soon oversubscribed.
Thanks to the cooperation of NSB personnel we have been able to increase the workshop band to 75 players. They will all be tutored on the day by Foden’s players and MD, Mike Fowles. It should prove to be a truly unforgettable experience, especially for the many youngsters who are taking part.
Several local brass bands will be represented, together with young players from local schools and NMPAT. The workshop band will also perform in the evening concert. Tickets for the evening concert are available from www.crippshalltheatre.co.uk[1] .
Foden’s Band are rare visitors to our area and so be sure not to miss this opportunity to listen to the current British Open and Brass in Concert champions. Another element of the project was to commission a new piece of music, specifically for use at the workshop, prior to being performed in public for the very first time, during the evening concert. This piece was written by Foden’s principal trombone player, John Barber, and is entitled ‘Two Shoes’.
John took inspiration from Northamptonshire’s Boot & Shoe making heritage and composed a two-movement piece based on running and dancing shoes. The first movement ‘Running’ marks the early 1950’s when Towcester’s Mr Law was making shoes for Roger Bannister (in addition to shoes for the All Blacks and Springboks). In 1952, wearing Mr Law’s shoes Roger Bannister competed in the Helsinki Olympics, smashing the 1500-meter British Record, before in 1954, famously becoming the first man to run a mile in under 4 minutes.
The music, with references to the Vangelis ‘Chariots of Fire’ imagines an early morning run around the Towcester Circle, visiting the River Walk, Belle Baulk Park, and Shires Meadow Park, gradually gaining in stature, building as the sun rises, before the training session calms as the circle is complete. The second movement ‘Dancing’ imagines Dances taking place in the Towcester Town Hall in the late 1920’s. Originally built in 1866 as a Corn Exchange, the building served as the headquarters of the local rural district council for much of the 20th century whilst catering for civic events and dances.
Set as a Shuffle, the music imagines couples in their dancing shoes as they do the Lindy Hop and Charleston in the Town Hall. The final key event in the project will be a second workshop/concert day, to be held on Saturday 18th May 2025 at Stowe School. Further details of this event will be published in the new year.
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References
- ^ www.crippshalltheatre.co.uk (www.crippshalltheatre.co.uk)
- ^ Report this article as inappropriate (www.aboutmyarea.co.uk)
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