NYBBS young players try their hand at music composition

One feature of last week’s National Youth Brass Band of Scotland (NYBBS) Easter course was an initiative to help some of the attendees to write their own piece of music.

Renowned Scottish composer Alan Fernie, who is musical director of the NYBBS Children’s band, mentored a group of young people, lending his considerable experience in the field of music composition.

“A proposed theme for our Children’s band summer course is old and new,” he explained. “We shall be playing some very old repertoire, alongside new works by Gareth Bowman and myself.

“I thought it'd be a nice idea to ask, help, develop and mentor existing NYBBS members at the Easter course to also consider writing a wee tune for the Children's band programme, to be played at Strathallan in August.”

He continued: “We have a small group of interested young folk and last week I laid out my initial thoughts and ideas to them. They'll be sending me their work over the next few weeks and, after some consultation with me, we'll hopefully have some new music for the summer.

“It’s not a competition as such, more of a development project which will culminate, all being well, in some new music to be played at our Children’s band course in August.”