NYBBS online concert takes shape as music is chosen

The music for the 2020 NYBBS (National Youth Brass Band of Scotland) Virtual Performance has been selected and is being distributed to the 116 young musicians who will be taking part in the online ‘grand finale’ concert, scheduled for 8 August.

Course tutors, directors and organisers have held Zoom planning meetings (pictured) to coordinate their roles in mentoring and assisting the students in the preparation of the online event to bring to an end what would have been a week’s residential summer course at Strathallan School in Perthshire.

Since the cancellation of the NYBBS course because of the COVID-19 lockdown, work has been going on behind the scenes by the Scottish Brass Band Association (SBBA) to create an exciting and memorable project, made possible through funding from Creative Scotland’s Youth Music Initiative (YMI) scheme.

All three NYBBS bands – children’s, reserve and senior – will be participating in this innovative venture to create an enjoyable programme of music interspersed with interviews and chat that will entertain and inform.

For the 35 youngsters taking part in the children’s segment of the concert, the music will be Jim the Juiceman, written in honour of the man who brought juice to the band while at Strathallan and arranged by Alan Fernie, and The Girl Who Sat on the Hill, a traditional Norwegian tune arranged by Fredrick Schjelderup.

The 38 reserve band members will be playing Starburst by Dan Price and The Spirit Within by Ben Hollings while the 43 senior band players will perform W. Hogarth Lear’s Pell Mell and Hine e Hine, the Maori lullaby arranged by Peter Graham.

All three bands will come together at the end of the concert for a rousing rendition of the march Slaidburn by William Rimmer.

The individual parts – all recorded in isolation by the youngsters – and the conversational snippets will be melded into a single show by professional TV and film editor Clyde Wallbanks, to be broadcast on the SBBA YouTube channel on 8 August.