The Midlands conference's own "60 Minute Wind Band". Featuring: Birmingham Conservatoire Head of Brass and London Sinfonietta principal trombone David Purser on flute; past Basbwe chairman and composer extraordinaire Guy Woolfenden on percussion; his wife and publisher Jane on lead alto sax; and Basbwe executive member Mark Heron with the world's worst clarinet embouchure. Basbwe chairman Simeon Yates look on.

Earlier this year, the BASBWE Council decided to promote a series of conferences to renew contact with teachers and conductors in the regions. The first was held at the Barbican and Guildhall School of Music and Drama on October 15^th, hosted by Peter Gane and Helena Gaunt, respectively Head and Deputy Head of the Department of Wind and Percussion. The Guildhall has for some time been at the cutting edge of an imaginative outreach programme in the East London boroughs; the links with community groups and school children of all ages meant that the Conference, just one of a series of events in Silk Street, had an exciting new buzz about it.

Three stalwart bands well known in BASBWE circles for some years gave concerts in the morning. London Youth Wind Band under Geoffrey Harniess reminded us of a visit over 20 years ago to Manchester of its predecessor under Christopher Morgan, with the world premiere of the sadly neglected Arthur Butterworth work, Tundra.

Fine Philip Sparke Dances
The programme of the 2006 group was a little more conservative, a typical march, King Cotton, by Sousa to open, played with suitable swagger, and Copland’s An Outdoor Overture, a deceptive work which needs fine soloists in all departments. In the fine set of Norfolk Dances, Philip Sparke captures much of the exuberance and brilliance of the late Malcolm Arnold. This was a fine tribute to a supporter of BASBWE for the last quarter of a century, and is a work which should be played regularly as an alternative to Arnold’s own sets of Dances.

I was caught up in a conducting class during the second and third concerts; I know the quality of both bands of old and can only report on the content of the programmes:

XBY Concert Band (Conductor Dennis Mycroft)
Concerto in F - George Gershwin arranged Herman S Gersten
Sunrise at Angel Gate - Philip Sparke

North Hertfordshire Wind Band (Conductor Phillip Brunton)
Marching Song - Gustav Holst
Lux Aurumque - Eric Whitacre
Ghosts - Stephen McNeff

These three morning programmes included eight works all very useful for a good high school, youth or community band, a mix of familiar and less familiar. The last two concerts consisted of a fine arrangement of a concerto which lends itself to the wind band, a varied and evocative piece by Philip Sparke, a revival of an early BASBWE discovery, the original Holst Marching Song, one of the more sensitive new scores from USA and a brilliant set of variations by an exciting young composer who is in residence with the Bournemouth Symphony. Ghosts, surely our contemporary wind equivalent of Enigma Variations, was the basis for the class for six young conductors, and the band was splendidly flexible and totally co-operative in this most difficult of exercises.

Renew and Re-invigorate
Throughout the day too, mini-concerts were platformed in both Guildhall and Barbican  showcasing students from the Guildhall. Throughout the day too, classes and clinics by many of London’s premier players and teachers were being held throughout the building, so that delegates could drop in and experience teaching at its finest, ensemble coaching, percussion techniques..  Any musician, whether a teacher, professional or amateur would have found plenty, possibly too much, to refresh the palate and renew musical energy.  For those “rare breed” instruments, Robin O’Neill gave a class on Organising the set-up of your bassoon – instrument, crooks and reeds and other sessions included Oboe class with Joseph Saunders,  Trombone Ensemble with Eric Crees, and a Welcome to Horn Club led by Hugh Seenan. Flute class with Ian Clarke, Saxophone  class with Christian Forshaw, Trumpet Ensemble with Paul Cosh, Body Percussion with Richard Benjafield,  and a mixed instrumental workshop all dealt with specialist knowledge, and in the afternoon there was a session by Brendon Le Page on Using Government funding to re-invigorate Wind Bands featuring his newly developed band course methods which are being developed nation wide. 

Why BASBWE?
There is a mini-argument at present as to whether BASBWE has outlived its usefulness; do we need conferences or any more music commissioned. The afternoon concert answered this for me in a very fine Horn Concerto by Simon Wills, superbly played by Steven Nicholls under the composer’s expert and enthusiastic direction. I was fortunate enough to be given the task of conducting the Berlioz Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale with a joint band  from the Royal Academy, the Guildhall, the National Youth Orchestra, Guildhall Junior School and local schools. Not one of the students had played this fine work before. In Birmingham on November 5^th Mark Heron will conduct a massed band performance of Handel’s Royal Fireworks Music – what a great opportunity these conferences provide for performances on a grand scale. 

Sir Colin Davis of the Household Cavalry
In the evening, everything came together in Berlioz, Tchaikovsky and Elgar, joint orchestras of the Royal Academy and Guildhall under the baton of Sir Colin Davis, formerly a clarinettist with the Band of the Household Cavalry. What a great way to end a day of music which happened to have an emphasis on wind, brass and percussion.

Supportive Trade
As always at BASBWE Conferences, the support from the trade members was crucial to the success of the event, and delegates could look at the latest publications from Studio Music, explore a variety of instruments, mouthpieces and reeds, look into updating their insurance premiums or join the Royal Marines. This was not as extensive an exhibition as those at Manchester, but for the next London Conference, probably in 2009, we can expect to use the huge spaces of the Barbican concert halls.

"Please to Remember" -  the 5th of November
So the BASBWE wagon rolls on to Birmingham in early November, with other conferences in Leeds and Manchester later this season and the next National Conference in Glasgow, 28^th June – 1^st July, followed by WASBE in Killarney a week later, starting 8^th July. The job of creating a repertoire for the 21^st Century and making sure everyone knows about it has hardly begun.

To Russia with love
If I needed any answer to “Why BASBWE”, I got it two days later. I left the Guildhall to fly to Moscow, left the airport to work with a good University Band on Marriage of Figaro and Phantom of the Opera, a band that knew virtually nothing of the original repertoire of the past quarter of a century from the West. After walking round the Kremlin, I  took a sixteen hour train journey to Saratov and worked with an excellent professional band on Russian Premieres of British works created for BASBWE.

Masque - Kenneth Hesketh
Illyrian dances - Guy Woolfenden
Slow Movement of Trumpet Concerto - Richard Rodney Bennett
Danceries - Kenneth Hesketh

Interval

Awayday - Adam Gorb
Suite of English Folk Dances - Ernest Tomlinson
Dances from Crete - Adam Gorb

Masque and Danceries were both premiered at Manchester Conferences, as were the Bennett Concerto and Awayday, while the Woolfenden was commissioned for an early conference at Warwick University. The Suite of English Dances is one of the finest examples of light music, scored by a master of that genre, and the Gorb Dances from Crete is a worthy successor to Yiddish Dances, a BASBWE commission. Without BASBWE  none of this programme would exist and I would have caught the train back to Leyland.