Organisation Awards 2015/16

24 Jan 2016

Members of all of the Enderby Bands Organisation’s (EBO) five bands met on Saturday 9th January 2016 for their annual awards and social evening. The evening marked the organisation’s traditional year end and offered an opportunity for everyone involved with the organisation to get together away from the bandroom to reflect on the year’s events.

The first presentation of the evening was given by Dave Smith, chairman of the Youth, Junior and Concert Bands. Dave commented on another year of growth for the three bands and gave his thanks to the Musical Directors of each of the bands – Trevor Hounsome (Youth Band), Sam McClumpha (Junior Band) and Stewart Osgood (Concert Band).

Moving on to his Chairman’s award, Dave stated that the recipient had worked tirelessly throughout the year, in particular in securing funds and grants for a variety of projects so it gave him great pleasure to give the award to Sharon Johnson.

Sharon Johnson recieves the Chairman's Award

 

Youth Band

Giving his Musical Director’s review of the year, Trevor remarked that it had been a mixed year of contest results for the Youth Band, which if nothing else proved how fickle they could be. For example, the Richard III inspired programme failed to find favour with the judges in Blackpool, however the same programme was received with a standing ovation a week later when the band performed in the pre-results interval at the UniBrass Contest. At the National Championships, the band received a Bronze Award which was pleasing given the number of players lost to university the previous year. Trevor thanked the players who had moved into principal seats and those who had moved up from the Junior Band, who were all performing very well which gave him much to be optimistic about for the forthcoming year.

Turning to the Youth Band Awards, Trevor gave the best section award to the euphonium and baritone section for consistently performing above his expectations. The next award was the players player as voted by the band’s members. This was a very close contest with the band’s principal cornet Josie coming a close second to their new soprano cornet player, Lewis who took the brave decision to move onto this difficult instrument this year and is making great progress.  The final Youth Band award was Musical Director’s Player of the Year. Trevor made a special mention to percussionist Lucy who has gained in confidence throughout the year and is now making a real contribution, but after much consideration he gave the award to someone who not only contributes as a player, but is always ready to help with the unglamorous tasks like moving kit and generally has a great attitude to band – the band’s solo euphonium Tom.

Youth Band Award Winners: Top - Best Section; Bottom Left - Player's Player, Lewis; Bottom Right: MD's Player, Tom

 

Concert Band

Concert Band Musical Director, Stewart Osgood was next to take the microphone. In his summary of the year he stated that the Concert Band has grown in size and the future looks bright. Despite being ostensively non-contesting, the band did compete twice in 2015 at Wood Farm Brewery and LBBA (Leicester) Contests, winning their section in both. Stewart was obviously delighted with these results and thanked his players for their hard work. He closed his review by stating that the Concert Band rehearsals on Thursday nights continue to be very enjoyable (both in the bandroom and the Red Lion afterwards) and he sees no reason why this would change.

Moving to the award presentation, Stewart commented that he’d given his MD award to someone who had been in the Concert Band since its inception and didn’t always get the credit he deserved, so he was very happy to give the award to the band’s flugel, Malc Shaw.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Concert Band MD's Player of the Year Winner Malc Shaw and MD Stew Osgood

 

Junior Band

The next person to speak was the Junior Band’s Musical Director, Samantha McClumpha. Sam continued the optimistic theme by stating that the band had done really well over the previous twelve months and had picked up new players, as well as sent some forwards to the Youth Band. The band will be performing again at the end of February, which Sam hoped would become a regular event in the organisation’s calendar and urged everyone in the organisation to attend.

Before making her presentations Sam stated that her job would be impossible without the assistance of her band of helpers, who provide extra tuition to members personally or in small groups. These are Pat Allsopp, Matt Bell, Natalie Bryan, Andy Hayto, Karen Routley, Gary and Sharon Lewin, Steve Lowe and Stew and Jan Osgood. Moving on to her awards, Sam gave the section award to the euphonium and baritone section. For the most improved player award, Sam commented that this could have easily been given to a number of players and in the end she had to give it to two people – Charlotte and Naomi, both of whom have made huge progress this year.

Junior Band Award Winners: Top - Best Section; Bottom - MD's Most Improved Players Charlotte and Naomi

 

Wind Band

The next band to present was the Wind Band. In the absence of Musical Director Tony Refugiato, band Chairman Greg Hayes presented the awards. Greg moved straight into the band’s awards, saying that 2015 saw the milestone 10th anniversary of the band which was celebrated with a massive concert featuring past and present players. This was a major undertaking for the band and Greg felt that it was only right to award his Chairman’s award to all of the Wind Band players for their hard work in putting on the evening. The next award was for the band’s young player of the year which was awarded to clarinettist Kathryn Leach. After the young player of the year Greg awarded the adult player of the year to Tom Dun and the best section to the Clarinets. Finally, he awarded the player's player as voted by the band’s members and Greg stated that the vote had resulted in a draw. Normally this would give the Chairman the casting vote, but Greg felt that both nominees were equally worthy so he awarded it to both Tom Dun and Liz Thirkill.

Wind Band Award Winners: Top Left - Young Player of the Year, Kathryn Leach; Top Right - Adult Player of the Year, Tom Dun; Middle - Section of the Year; Bottom - Player's Player Award, Tom Dun and Liz Thirkill

 

Senior Band

Before the awards for the Senior Band were given, Chairman Dave Stanley stood to say a few words. Dave commented that since the summer the Huncote bandroom has had some major internal reconfiguration and this has resulted in a much larger, more usable and pleasant rehearsal space. For this work he extended his thanks to Stewart Osgood, for conceiving and implementing the project and Dave Routley and Alan Wall who helped Stew carry out the work. Dave also thanked all the members of the Senior Band’s committee for their work throughout the year. To close, Dave welcomed the Senior Band’s Musical Director Simon Gresswell.

To open his review of the year, Simon stated that Enderby was something of a culture shock to him, having enjoyed much of his banding career at the very pinnacle of the movement. However he had been consistently surprised and impressed by the application and commitment of the band’s players and committee. When he joined, the band were looking for both brass and percussion players and for his first contest the band had to borrow seven players, but gradually over the months the brass vacancies have been filled, meaning that for the LBBA and Butlin’s the band fielded a full complement of their own brass players – something he was sure not many other bands could claim. Unfortunately despite some hard work no progress had been made to fill the percussion vacancies and Simon took the opportunity to thank the band’s sole percussionist Lucy Ashmore for her hard work and stated that filling the remaining vacancies with the right calibre of players was high on his priorities for 2016. When he joined, the band were fresh from winning the Wood Farm Brewery contest and had had an excellent night at the Whit Friday Marches, including a fourth place overall at Uppermill – all of which were under the baton of the band’s principal euphonium Chris Small and he thanked Chris for taking temporary charge during this period. Overall, Simon felt the band had performed well throughout the year and highlights included the win at Shirebrook, beating some higher section competition in the process, a pleasing third place at Wychavon and a solid performance in the Championship Section there and the fantastic and prestigious concerts at Curve and DeMontfort Hall. Leicester Contest was not such a good day – but Simon was still confident that the band would continue to improve and felt very positive for the future. Finally Simon thanked the committee – in particular Danielle Thomas for her band management and Stewart Osgood for the work on the bandroom and closed his speech by saying what a fantastic organisation Enderby was to be a part of.

Simon’s first award was for the Musical Director’s player of the year and he awarded this to soprano Alex Baldwin who he said had worked really hard on his playing and was starting to become a player the band could be very proud of. The next award was for the players player, as voted by the band’s members and this was awarded to Lucy Ashmore – someone who Simon stated was also high in his consideration for the MD’s award. Finally the band’s committee award was given to Trevor Hounsome for his work in acting as liaison and organising music for the Curve and DeMontfort Hall concerts.

 

 

 

 

 

Senior Band Award Winners: Left - MD's Player of the Year, Alex Balwin; Centre - Committee Award, Trevor Hounsome; Right - Player's Player, Lucy Ashmore

 

Organisation Awards

The final awards presented were the two ‘organisation’ awards, which are generally given for contributions to the organisation in a non-playing capacity. The first of these was the Sleath award, named after John and Doreen Sleath. This was given to Jan Osgood for her tireless work and support for both the Junior and Concert bands.

The final award was the Townsend award – named after organisation Chairman Neil Townsend’s late wife. This award was particularly poignant tonight as Neil himself had unfortunately passed away in November. Before giving the award, Dave Stanley paid tribute to Neil and his work while he was associated with the organisation. Dave stated that Neil will be missed by all as Chairman and friend and it was appropriate that members of the organisation had played at Neil’s funeral.

In giving the award, Dave said that the recipient had done a fantastic job of organising the Wind Band’s 10th anniversary concert and was a worthy recipient both for this and his general contribution to the organisation. He was proud to give the award to Greg Hayes.

After the formality of the awards it was time for everyone to let their hair down a little with a disco, nibbles, a raffle and Christmas-themed quizzes to enjoy.

Organisation Award Winners: Left - Sleath Award; Right - Townsend Award

 

Full list of award winners:

Junior, Youth and Concert Band Chairman’s award: Sharon Johnson

 

Youth Band:

Best Section: euphoniums and baritones

Players Player Award: Lewis – soprano cornet

MD’s Player Award: Tom – euphonium

 

Concert Band:

MD’s Player Award: Malc Shaw – flugel

 

Junior Band:

Best Section: euphoniums and baritones

Most Improved Player Award: Charlotte and Naomi

 

Wind Band:

Chairman’s Award: whole Wind Band

Young Player of the Year: Kathryn Leach

Adult Player of the Year: Tom Dun

Best Section: Clarinets

Player’s Player: Tom Dun and Liz Thirkill

 

Senior Band:

MD’s Player Award: Alex Baldwin – soprano cornet

Player’s Player: Lucy Ashmore – percussion

Committee Award: Trevor Hounsome

 

Organisation Awards:

Sleath Award: Jan Osgood

Townsend Award: Greg Hayes

Published for:

The Enderby BandThe Youth BandThe Junior BandThe Concert BandThe Wind Band

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