Anthony Houghton was born in Warrington and spent a happy childhood in the Lincolnshire countryside near Grimsby where he attended the Choir School, was a member of the Parish Church Choir and played Clarinet with the Youth Orchestra. After studying at the Royal Manchester College of Music (forerunner of the RNCM) he settled in Manchester working as a freelance Clarinettist and Saxophonist. A recitalist, orchestral and session player he was Principal Clarinet of the Northern Ballet Theatre and Manchester Camerata Orchestras for many years and played regularly with the Hallé, BBC, Opera North and many other orchestras in England and Scotland.

A founder member of the English Saxophone Quartet, he is now Clarinettist with the Lanner Players and the Camæraderie Wind Trio. Anthony's playing career has been complemented by his work in education and he is Instrumental Tutor and Ensemble Director at Sheffield University, where he is also Conductor of the Wind Orchestra, and at Manchester Grammar School. After a long professional association with the Trafford Youth Orchestras, he founded and still directs its Concert Band.

He is actively involved with King Edward Music Society in Macclesfied, and conducts both their orchestra and concert band.
 

Charles Hine is deeply involved with the promotion of wind music and especially its educational aspect. He is a former chairman of Basbwe, and having founded the Basbwe Education Trust remains responsible for its activities.

He is currently Head of Woodwind and Head of Performance Studies at the Colchester Institute Centre of Music and also conducts the Essex Youth Symphonic Wind Orchestra. For many years he directed the Wind Orchestra and Clarinet Choir at the Royal College of Music, Junior Department. Charles is also the conductor of the British Clarinet Ensemble which has toured, recorded and broadcast widely at home and overseas.

Charles studied clarinet at the Royal Academy of Music where he received numerous awards. During his studies he won the "Young Musician" Award for South East England and has since been honoured with an ARAM. Since the early 1970s Charles has followed a career as a clarinettist, holding principal positions with some of Britain's leading orchestras as well as continuing to give solo recitals and concerto performances. He has premiered many works for solo clarinet and was a founder member of the Vega Wind Quintet.

He has also been invited to be a guest conductor by orchestras and bands in England and Scotland. Much in demand as an adjudicator, Charles has chaired the assessment panels for the National Concert Band Festival the National Festival of Music for Youth as well as leading seminars and giving clinics and masterclasses on all aspects of clarinet, wind ensemble and band playing.
 

Richard Edwards is a very experienced and successful clarinet and saxophone teacher working in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of education in North Wales.  He has led the annual Clarinet Teachers’ Conference organised by the Clarinet & Saxophone Society of Great Britain. Richard founded the North Wales Clarinet Choir in 1995, which has toured Denmark, the Netherlands, Hungary and Italy and hosted two British Clarinet Choir Conventions and in association with this regularly runs weekend single reed courses.

For over six years he has edited the quarterly magazine Clarinet & Saxophone that has subscribers in over 40 countries.  Recently he was appointed as Editor of Winds magazine, the journal of the British Association of Symphonic Bands and Wind Ensembles.

Richard's team is also responsible for dealing with Basbwe membership administration.

Simeon is dedicated to the development of wind bands and the promotion of wind repertoire and is particularly involved in the education sector and the development and promotion of community wind music. 

In 1970 Simeon began studying in clarinet under Julian Hall, in 1978 he won an education scholarship and studied with Max Ben of the Halle Orchestra and Jack Brymer. He studied ensemble direction under Major Peter Parkes and John Gully. In 1986 following his entrepreneurial flair he ventured into the music retail business later leaving a successful business to become head of music at St David’s School.  In 1990 he then returned to the LEA music service as a peripatetic teacher.

Simeon is currently Lead Teacher of Woodwind and Head of Huddersfield Music Centre for  Kirklees Music School, conductor and orchestral manager of the Kirklees Symphonic Wind Orchestra and musical director of the Yorkshire Junior Wind Ensemble. He is a player member of the Yorkshire Wind Orchestra and a founder member of the Phoenix community wind band. Simeon regularly adjudicates at local and regional festivals and contributes to working parties within the wind band fraternity.
 

Russell Cowieson studied saxophone at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and at the Guildhall. He has studied conducting with Timothy Reynish, Baldur Brönniman and at Canford with George Hurst.

Russell is the conductor of the Edinburgh University Symphony Orchestra and Cambridgeshire Youth Wind Orchestra. He has also worked with the RNCM & RSAMD junior school orchestras and  Young Sinfonia.

Russell has spent much of his career developing the talents of young musicians. His outstanding work in this area was recognised when he became the first recipient of the Yamaha Instrumental Teacher of the Year Award in 1998

Mark Heron studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama and the Royal Northern College of Music. Following a successful chamber music career and freelance work with many of the UK’s professional symphony orchestras, Mark undertook conducting studies at the RNCM and is now a full-time professional conductor.

His diverse musical interests have resulted in an unusually wide range of work: symphony, chamber and wind orchestras, contemporary music and opera all feature regularly in his schedule. He has worked with orchestras in Russia, Finland, Germany, Estonia and Israel. In the UK he is the Music Director of the Liverpool Mozart Orchestra and the Manchester University Symphony Orchestra and guest conducts regularly with several other groups.

He was the conductor of the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Israel in 2004 and 2005, and works with various orchestras and ensembles at the Royal Northern College of Music, particularly the RNCM Wind Orchestra with whom he has recorded and performed regularly. Until 2006 he was Music Director of the North Cheshire Concert Band, and remains their principal guest conductor. In June 2006 Mark conducted the London Symphony Orchestra as one of three young conductors selected by the orchestra for their mentoring programme with Sir Colin Davis.

Mark has a strong interest in contemporary music. He has led several commissioning projects involving composers from the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Finland and United States and has literally dozens of world, European and UK premieres to his name. In April 2006 he conducted the European premiere of leading American composer Daron Hagen’s opera, Bandanna.

Alongside his conducting engagements, Mark writes regularly for a variety of musical journals and websites and teaches conducting privately, for the University of Manchester, and the Royal Air Force.

Andrew was born in Manchester and began his music education at the age of 6, in a Salvation Army Brass Band. By the age of 12 he could play all the instruments in the band but preferred Trombone and Euphonium. At 16 Andrew took up the bassoon and became principal bassoon in the Manchester Youth Orchestra just 6 months after his first lesson. He went on to perform the Weber bassoon concerto after 12 moths in a Showcase concert for the Manchester Music Service at the Royal Northern College of Music. Andrew went on to study bassoon at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Andrew's first conducting class was with Timothy Reynish at the RNCM, and while at college Andrew formed a student orchestra and wind ensemble. Since then he has had lessons with Sir Charles Groves, Gerhard Geist, and George Hurst. Andrew returned to Canford in recent years for more intensive training with Timothy Reynish, Captain Mick Dowrick, and Philip Scott.

After leaving Music College Andrew has had extensive experience as a professional bassoonist, woodwind teacher, and conductor both here and in South Africa. He established the groundbreaking Community Wind Band College, Northamptonshire Orchestral Winds in October 2005, starting with only 9 players at the first rehearsal.  Within their first year they produced a professional quality CD (Celebration),  were Showcased at the London International Wind Band Festival, had an invitation to perform at the World Projects New York Wind Band and Orchestra Festival at Carnegie Hall, achieved a Gold Award in the Open Class of the National Concert Band Festival, and an invitation to perform at the BASBWE International Wind Festival at RSAMD, Glasgow  2007.

Martin Ellerby is a composer of international standing, whose works have been performed, broadcast and recorded to critical acclaim across Europe, Asia and the USA. His catalogue comprises compositions spanning a diverse range of media, including orchestral, choral, concert band, brass band, ballet, instrumental and chamber, together with a substantial number of commercial orchestrations and arrangements. Ellerby’s works are published extensively and recorded on over 75 commercial CDs to date. Key performances include the BBC Promenade Concerts, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Barbican Centre, Royal Albert Hall, South Bank Centre and many major international festivals, including Edinburgh, Harrogate, Zurich and Kuhmo Chamber Music ( Finland).

Martin combines a busy schedule as a professional composer with work in education, where he is currently Visiting Professor (with responsibility for curriculum design) at the Royal Air Force: Headquarters Music Services. He is also Artistic Director for Studio Music Company, London and Senior Producer for Polyphonic Recordings.

In his previous post as Head of Composition and Contemporary Music at the London College of Music and Media, Martin was responsible for the co-ordination and development of a high profile department of over 50 composition students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He instigated and designed four specialist composition programmes at Masters level, while also preparing a range of detailed undergraduate syllabuses. Martin contributed to the artistic focus of the school by being pro-active in overseeing the inclusion of a substantial number of student works in concert programmes, hosting a range of Composers’ Festivals and organising frequent workshops and specialist composers’ concerts.

Robert Bridges, Conductor and Music Director of the Southwark Concert Band since 1995, is also leader and Co-Founder of the South London Jazz Orchestra and Music Director of the umbrella charity, South London Community Music. He was founder, and for eight seasons, Conductor of the South San Francisco Summer Symphony. In San Francisco he was a long serving Director of the Triton Museum, St Francis Hospital and numerous charities, and has been the recipient of numerous awards for service to the arts. Mr Bridges was invited to the Royal College of Music Junior Department for a four-year teaching residency in musicianship in 1995. His choral conducting has included directorship of the International Festival of Swiss Singing Societies and his orchestral/choral conducting has included major works performances in France, Switzerland, Italy, numerous locations in the USA, and throughout the Pacific Basin.

His fifteen years of performances with the chamber orchestra and the wind band of the Deutscher Musik Verein resulted in several international competition awards. He is a national Trustee of BASBWE (the British Association of Symphonic Bands and Wind Ensembles) and is active in national and local charity work in the UK. He has spearheaded several commissions of works by UK and USA composers, including recent commissions by Stephen McNeff, Roger Cawkwell, John Holland and Philip Venables. His postgraduate music degree was awarded by the University of California (UCLA) and he is an Honorary Life Member of Phi Mu Alpha, the national (American) music fraternity. For his finance and management activities, he has been named a Fellow, by Royal Charter, of the Institute of Directors in London. Mr Bridges has resided in Dulwich, south London since 1997. 
 

Timothy Reynish held principal horn positions with the Northern Sinfonia, Sadlers Wells Opera and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra before joining the Royal Northern College of Music as Tutor in Conducting and later Head of School of Wind and Percussion.

He studied conducting with George Hurst, Dean Dixon, and Franco Farrara, was a prizewinner in the Mitropulos International Conducting Competition, and has conducted orchestras and wind ensembles in Canada, Scandinavia, Europe the Middle East and North and South America.

Since leaving the RNCM he has worked unstintingly to raise both the performing standards and the quality of music played by wind orchestras and ensembles around the world - indeed he has commissioned a copious number of major works himself. Following a term as President of the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles he currently spends much of his year commuting between America and the UK with the occasional trip to Australia!