New Resident for Whitburn
Whitburn Band has appointed a new resident conductor.
Jim Chamberlain, who is on a break from playing due to an ongoing embouchure issue, has been taking Whitburn for the past few weeks.In recent years, Jim was the star flugel player with the band. He won an array of individual prizes including the Best Soloist award at the 2007 Scottish Open as Whitburn went on to win the contest for the second consecutive year.
As a conductor, Jim started in 1998 with the South Milford Band in his native Yorkshire, as well as directing the Stanley Newmarket Youth Brass workshops near his home town of Wakefield.
After he moved to Scotland in 2000, he took up the MD position with Penicuik Silver as well as helping out other bands including Bo'ness and Carriden. He then conducted Lochgelly Band in Fife, taking them to the Lower Section National Finals in Harrogate after he led them to second place in the Scottish Regional Championships in 2005.
Jim - a brass instructor with Fife Council after a ten-year stint as a classroom music teacher in Edinburgh - is currently the conductor of Dalkeith & Monktonhall. He led them to victory in the Scottish third section in 2008 before winning the Scottish Challenge Cup later that year. The East Lothian band then went on to win the second section at this year's regional championships.
