Monmouth School’s Junior Symphonic Wind took part in the UK’s largest wind band and big band festival last weekend. They won the highest possible award when they scooped Platinum at the regional heats of the competition hosted at Cheltenham Ladies’ College. This gained them an automatic entry to the finals to be held at the Royal College of Music, London, in April 2012.
Junior Symphonic Wind is a concert band made up of boys drawn from Years 7 – 9 (aged 11 to rising 14) at Monmouth School. The ensemble, totalling some 40 players, is made up of woodwind and brass (including bass clarinet, baritone saxophone and tuba) with a strong 4-member percussion team.
Gaining Platinum at the regional festival was a first for the juniors. In 2009 and 2010, Monmouth School hosted the West of England and South Wales Regional Festival in the Blake Theatre. In 2009, Junior Symphonic Winds gained a Gold Award at the Regional Festival, was invited through to the finals, performed in the Adrian Boult Hall at the Birmingham Conservatoire and gained a Gold Award at the finals. In 2010, they won a Gold Award at the Regional Festival and were invited through to the finals again. This time they performed at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow and gained a Platinum Award for the very first time in the band’s history.
This year, the Regional Festival was hosted at The Cheltenham Ladies’ College. Junior Symphonic Winds presented a varied, carefully prepared programme: Cosgrove (Brian West) is a strong opener in which a majestic march is contrasted with a lyrical central section featuring clarinets. This was followed by Aztalan (City of Mystery) (Michael Sweeney) which tells the story of a settlement in Illinois that disappeared completely between 1000 and 1300 A.D. The piece features interesting, mysterious note clusters and improvisatory passages for the percussion. In complete contrast, Cool Jazz Riffs (Gerald Sebesky) saw the band take a different direction exploring the world of big-band sound and featuring solo passages for trumpet, clarinet, saxophone, trombone, flute and drum-kit!