Gong for school’s top brass

North Chadderton School Brass Ensemble National Festival of Music for Youth 2008 Outstanding Performance Award.

TALENTED musicians at North Chadderton School hit all the right notes to scoop a top award at the National Festival of Musical Youth.

The school’s brass ensemble won the Outstanding Performance Award at the competition in Birmingham — the world’s largest youth musical festival featuring 10,000 performers.

Their 12-minute programme included choreography from memory without a conductor, showing incredible ensemble skills and musical maturity.

The ensemble section showcases just about any combination of instruments from recorder trios and barber shop choirs to percussion groups playing on plastic chairs.

It is incredibly difficult for a brass group to win what is traditionally a non-brass section. The group of 18 pupils, aged 11 to 17, is now waiting to see if it will be invited to perform at the Schools Prom at the Royal Albert Hall in November. Meanwhile, three band members — Rory Farrell, Joshua Flynn and Dominica Halstead — have jetted out to America for a once-in-a-lifetime tour with Oldham Music Centre. The group also won the outstanding performance award at the Oldham Schools Music Festival. Kath Dunning, head of music at North Chadderton, said: “I am proud of these young people and their commitment and determination to excel. They have had a gruelling rehearsal schedule under the direction of John Collins who has been the driving force behind their success.”