People

Wedding Congratulations ...

TO Diane Prince (Trombone) and Michael Creech (Percussion) on their recent
wedding in October 2003.

AND TO John Hughes (Composer) and Mary Ann Lloyd (Zookeeper) on their recent
wedding in June 2004.

AND TO Paul Farr (Tuba) and Carol "Billie" Goodwin (Percussion) on their recent wedding on 7th August 2004.

AND TO John Goodwin (Trumpet) and Su Bryant (Tennis) on their recent
wedding on 7th August 2004.
(note the surnames and dates are entirely coincidental!!)

Who's Next?

Engagement Congratualtions

to our Trombonist Simon Schofield who popped the question Easter 2005.

Birth Congratulations ...

To Lisa Ridgway (Horn) on the birth of Holly Grace Ridgway on 16th July 2004 @ 17:47 at Royal Surrey County Hospital Guildford Weight: 7lb 15oz

They grow so quickly...... Easter 2005

and to Ellie Verkerk (Horn) on the birth of Anneke Molly 15th Oct at 1.51am in Frimley Park Hospital after a 70 hour labour(!) at 8lbs 10oz.

We credit and thank everyone associated with Surrey Brass!

Surrey Brass 25th May 2002 - Photo Copyright Rob Verkerk

Surrey Brass has an established core of regular players who form the main ensemble, which is supported and supplemented regularly by a number of deputies. This page contains biographies, photos and links to Surrey Brass musicians, including deputies and players currently in our player pool. Also we are proud to tell you about the other other people who are vital to the success of our group.

Here are some not entirely credible credits for the Orchestra - and the Brass Band!

Current Vacancies

Surrey Brass needs players who are prepared to commit to regular rehearsals, also to deputise, to add strength in key areas, do the really big shows, and also on a more practical note, cover for people who are previously booked or otherwise unavailable for rehearsals and concerts. We think this is great because it gives more players the opportunity to enjoy the Surrey Brass experience whilst allowing us more flexibility to do more varied musical programmes.

Section Name - click link to see current people	Permanent Vacancies	Deputy Vacancies
Musical Director	By Appointment	By Appointment
Guest Soloist	By Appointment	By Appointment
Trumpet Section	None at present	None at present
Horn Section	None at present	None at present
Trombone Section	None at present
Euphonium Section	None at present	None at present
Tuba Section	None at present	None at present
Percussion Section	None at present	None at present
Composers and Arrangers
Recording Engineer	None at present	None at present
Photographer	None at present	None at present
Marketing/ Promoter
Concert Steward

President: Roger Argente

Vice President: Councillor Nigel Cooper

Musical Director: Robin Smith

Deputy Musical Director - Richard Ward

Richard Ward is a freelance trombone player and joined Surrey Brass in 2002 as Deputy MD. Born in Leeds, he completed a BMus in 1997 at the Birmingham Conservatoire under the guidance of Phil Harrison and then studied as a post-graduate at the Royal Academy of Music, where he was taught by Dudley Bright. Whilst at the Academy he became a member of the prestigious European Union Youth Orchestra.

Richard has played for BBC National Orchestra of Wales, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, London Concert Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and RTE Concert Orchestra, working with reknowned conductors including Claudio Abbado and Simon Rattle. He has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company; Grange Park Opera, "..the creme de la creme of the country house opera scene"; Carl Rosa Opera (where Gustav Holst was the trombone player over a hundred years ago!) and in shows such as 'Chicago' & 'West Side Story'.

Richard has also ventured into the world of Brass Bands as musical director of Regent Brass, one of the leading bands in the South East.

Guest Conductor - Tom Hammond

Tom Hammond has been active as both conductor and professional trombonist since he graduated from London's Royal Academy of Music in 1997, where he was awarded a First for his final performance. His first concert with Surrey Brass was in 2004.

Tom studied with Dudley Bright (LSO) and also with Susan Addison (Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra) with whom he pursued an interested in Baroque and Renaissance trombone. Tom now performs regularly with groups such as The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra (Berlin) Berlin Contemporary Opera, The Brunel Ensemble, The Britten Sinfonia, Europa Galante (Parma, Italy), London Concert Orchestra and Carl Rosa Opera. Tom is a member of the successful Brass Quintet Alberti Brass. On the sackbut Tom performs with The King's Consort, The Gabrieli Consort and The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble. He is also a regular performer at Shakespeare's Globe on Bankside, and has recently returned from a coast to coast tour of the USA with the Globe Production of Twelfth Night.

Tom has always conducted alongside his career as a trombonist and hopes to move into conducting as a full time occupation in the future. He conducted several concerts in the Duke's Hall whilst he was a student at the RAM, including concerts with the RAM Brass Ensembles. He is currently Artistic Director of the critically acclaimed chamber ensemble Sound Collective, who are fast gaining a reputation as one of the finest ensembles of their genre in the UK. Recent press comments have included:

Tom's work with sound collective has brought him support from such important contemporary figures as John McCabe and David Matthews. Tom has a special interest in Scandinavian music and has conducted performances of rarities from the repertoire of great composers such as Sibelius and Carl Nielsen. Tom is also Director of the London School of Economics Orchestra and teaches at Anglia Polytechnic University and Royal Holloway College.

Guest Conductor - Denis Wick

Surrey Brass is delighted to feature Guest Conductor Denis Wick. Denis Wick has had for many years an international reputation as trombonist, brass teacher and conductor.

Denis became principal trombonist of the London Symphony Orchestra in 1957 and remained there until his retirement in 1988. During his time with the London Symphony, which eventually became the longest tenure of a principal chair in the history of the orchestra, he played under many of the world’s greatest conductors. Despite the demanding schedule of the LSO, Denis has also been a member of the London Sinfonietta and, for a short period, the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble.

Guest Soloists

The Trumpet Section

John Goodwin The Founder of Surrey Brass, John has been playing the trumpet for around 40 years, aiming to get better all the time. He won a Junior Exhibition Scholarship at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama at the age of 11, and progressed to become Principal Trumpet of the National Youth Orchestra a few years later where he was taught by Ernest Hall, Philip Jones and Douglas Moore among other distinguished tutors. University education followed, during which he was taught privately by Philip Jones, John Miller and John Wallace and played in "Le Quintet Hot D'Englefield Green", an extremely rough and intemperate New Orleans Temperance Jazz band, and "Spam69", the worlds' first (and hopefully last) punk trad jazz band. During this time attended a number of Philip Jones Brass Ensemble summer schools. John Goodwin

John played for the London Tijuana Showband for many years which was led by his great friend and mentor Paul Ringham, and before he decided to retire as a full time freelance player had numerous engagements with The Welsh Opera, Ballet Rambert, The Royal Ballet, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta.

Since 1992 John has played for "Royal Scam" and "Guilty Party", two local 10-piece Soul Bands famous on the local corporate entertainment circuit, and recently left the Egham Band after a long stint playing Flugelhorn and Principal Cornet. He plays for the Linden Wind Orchestra, and deputises for the Wandsworth Symphony Orchestra, Surrey Mozart Players and other orchestras in the area. He has an expired gym membership, a rusty mountain bike and an overgrown allotment.

Michael Chapple is one of our keenest supporters and specialist on "small" trumpets. Michael started playing the trumpet aged 8, learning through the brass tutoring of Surrey Youth Music and Performing Arts. He furthered his musical studies at Huddersfield University from where he graduated in 1996.

Since returning to the South, Michael has been splitting his time between playing for a number of different groups (including many orchestras, brass bands and brass ensembles) and teaching. He frequently finds himself teaching alongside many of his past tutors in his work with Surrey Youth Music and Performing Arts. He is also to be found tutoring many of the groups in Surrey that he once played for, from absolute beginners to the finest trumpet section in the County. He has formed a Trumpet Ensemble which aims to play pieces written or arranged for the largest possible number of instruments at once, so far the record being thirty six - but he is aiming for more!

When not playing, teaching or arranging, Michael is a keen juggler, frequently being seen with a local team of jugglers known as Passing Time. On occasion he has even been known to combine the juggling with the trumpet playing - a sight that needs to be seen to be believed! He has a fine line in corny Jokes.

Will Spencer, our Chairman and Principal Trumpet is a brilliant Piccolo Trumpet player, is a teacher and also runs a top rated instrument repair business with a reputation for rescuing wrecked school instruments, and also gold plating. He loves to customise trumpets, and often makes them from bits, notably his Bachaha (or is that a Yamach?).

He has his own fabulous website which tells you much more about him that we can - and you can hear him play there too. In his spare time he cycles around Surrey and races the ducks while swimming in the Wey Navigation.

Here is a picture of him, off on his travels to the International Trumpet Guild convention that was held in Denver in 2004. As you can see he took part of his trumpet collection with him. Talking of which.....

Huw Evans is a "gearhead" having one of the largest instrument collections anyone has ever heard of, at the last count it was 38 Bb trumpets alone (allegedly). He's great at providing those hard to find instruments for those difficult pieces. And showing us how to play them too! Huw is a keen Big Band player and is strong lead player. We like to feature him whenever a screaming jazz number is in the programme. Huw has never lived down winning a Donny Osmond lookalike contest when he was younger - there are photos out there somewhere and if you have one we'd like to hear from you!

Our youngest member is Sam Ewens who has been playing the trumpet for ten years, six of those spent with teacher Robin Smith at Alleyn’s School, reaching Grade 8 with honours at age 15. He has been principal trumpet of the LSSO (London Schools Symphony Orchestra) for 3 years. With them he plays regularly at venues in London such as the Barbican and St John’s Smiths Square under various guest conductors such as David Stern and Benjamin Zander and with soloists, such as pianist Georgy Sandor. As a soloist, Sam performed the Arutunian Trumpet Concerto in March 2002 in the Schools Prom at the Royal Albert Hall. He also performs regularly in school recitals and recently won the Malcom Smith Brass Prize. Sam is also a keen sportsman, playing football and Hockey for his school and supporting Manchester United!

Steve Dawes started playing brass instruments at the age of 7 in the Salvation Army brass band at Hednesford in Staffordshire. At the age of 10 he joined Staffs County Youth Orchestra and met Roy Curran from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, who was to become Steve's major musical influence over many years. At the age of 13 Steve was accepted into the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, where he was to play for 7 years, the latter years as principal trumpet (following John Goodwin's tenure of that chair!), appearing at most of the major concert venues in Europe, including the Royal Festival Hall and an annual appearance at the Royal Albert Hall Promenade concerts, often live on BBC TV. With the NYO he appeared under the baton of many of the worlds leading conductors including Pierre Boulez, Charles Dutoit and Sir Simon Rattle, under which the orchestra recorded Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. The NYO introduced him to many prominent trumpet professors including Ernest Hall, Philip Jones, Elgar Howarth and David Mason, who became Steve's major trumpet teacher during this period. After graduating from Bristol University with a BSc Hons in chemistry Steve joined BP as a tech services chemist in 1981. Since then he has continued to play the trumpet with many of the countries leading semi and professional orchestras and ensembles. During a 3 year spell in South Africa he was accepted for extra work with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra brass section. Steve is currently principal trumpet with the Royal Orchestral Society Symphony Orchestra, the Surrey Mozart Players and is delighted to be associated with Surrey Brass where he re-kindled a friendship with John Goodwin 26 years after they first met in the NYO. Steve is an Associate of the Royal College of Music and a Fellow of the Trinity College, London. He works for BP as a Global Procurement Manager and is married to Sue with two boys, Michael and Marcus. He is a fanatical Manchester United supporter (and was before they started winning everything)

The Horn Section

Tim Costen is currently the Principal Horn of the Bloomsbury Chamber Orchestra and the BBC Elstree Concert Band. In the 25 years that he has been playing the horn he has lead the horn sections of the National Youth Wind Orchestra, the Rehearsal Orchestra, the Bloomsbury Philharmonic, and more recently, the London Shostakovich Orchestra, as well as playing in many other orchestras and wind ensembles of various types. He recently gave the world premiere of a new concerto for Horn and Band, composed by Mike Crisp, Musical Director of the BBC Elstree Concert Band. When not playing his horn Tim is often to be found out riding or racing one of his recumbent bicycles. Unfortunately, a popular brass-players' post-rehearsal activity does its best to reduce his racing fitness (hint: beer).

also play for Surrey Brass regularly, but have not got round to telling us what they are really like!

The Trombone Section

Diane Prince Tenor/Alto Trombone. Diane is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, classically trained but regularly works with a couple of London big bands and does show and pop music also. Her full bio will appear as soon as she has finished her Dissertation.

Richard Stubbings, Bass Trombone. Richard received his early music training at Wells Cathedral School and Cranleigh School before studying at Kingston University, where he gained a BA degree with Honours in Music Education. He also holds a teaching licentiateship from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Richard studied trombone with Roger Harvey (BBC Symphony Orchestra) and Sidney Langston (BBC Symphony Orchestra) and bass trombone with Leslie Lake (English National Opera) and Frank Mathison (London Symphony Orchestra).
Richard is a full-time brass teacher for Surrey County Arts, where he also tutors youth orchestras from beginner level through to the trombones of the county youth orchestra. In 2002 he was asked to form and direct the Surrey County Brass Ensemble. He is also Area Brass Co-ordinator for Mid-Surrey. As well as playing for Surrey Brass, Richard is principal bass trombone with the West Forest Sinfonia and is much in demand as a freelance bass trombone with many local choirs and orchestras. In his spare (!) time, he pursues an interest in transport photography.

The Euphonium Section

The Tuba Section

Iain McDonald began playing the Tuba at 11 years old and has been playing in various ensembles for 14 years, including the Lancashire Students Symphony Orchestra, Northern Junior Philharmonic Orchestra and Wingates Brass Band. He attended Chethams School of Music, Manchester and recently graduated from the University of Surrey with a degree in Music. Last year he performed the Edward Gregson Tuba Concerto with the University Orchestra. In his final recital he performed Robin Heywood's "Sink" for Tuba with hosepipe and drip-bag, however due to the almost impossible task of obtaining a drip-bag a recently emptied wine-box was found to be a satisfactory substitute.

Chris Wilcox has been playing the tuba for what feels like an eternity! His musical education has included training on the Pimlico School Special music course, and time at the Centre for Young Musicians, where he was a member of the London Schools Symphony Orchestra, with whom he toured Japan. He has a 1st class degree from the Colchester Institute and a Postgraduate Performance Diploma form Trinity College of Music. During his time at Colchester Chris won the solo brass competition, brass ensemble and composition prizes. He recently won the Philip Jones prize with his regular quintet - Trafalgar Brass.

As a soloist Chris has performed the Gregson, Vaughan Williams and Ellerby Tuba Concertos. He has played in master classes with the Royal Philharmonic Quintet, Fine Arts Brass Quintet, Onyx Brass and Oren Marshall. He plays regularly with many London based orchestras as well as Surrey Brass. He teaches brass instruments, and despite his London music college training, still remains optimistic about a future career in music!... all be it as a session player on the Peruvian nose flute!!

The Percussion Section

Amelia Jacobs is also one of our regular percussionists - she has a B.Mus. in performance, more details soon.

Composers and Arrangers

Many composers and arrangers have worked with Surrey Brass and we have given each one their own page. All the composers who entered our Golden Jubilee Fanfare Contest can be accessed here.

Special place goes to John Hughes who has arranged a vast amount of music for us, and one or more pieces by him appear in most of our shows. He specialises in Film Music having arranged blockbuster movie music as well as composing his own.

If you have a large brass ensemble arrangement you would like us to try out,
please get in contact!

Recording Engineer

Richard Sutcliffe is a graduate of the famous Tonmeister course at Surrey University. Richard recorded our Golden Jubilee Fanfare Concert. Our first CD "Golden Jubilee Fanfares" was made and was given airplay on BBC Southern Counties Radio over the Jubilee period. Richard also produced our second album, "From Russia with Love". He recorded "East Meets West", "Movie Music" and will record our forthcoming Christmas Album.

Alex van Ingen, also a Tonmeister and percussionist, recorded our second live album, "From Russia with Love". He is currently working for a company in the North of England who specialise in recording brass - and we can't wait to have him back soon.

Phil Hardisty recorded our Concorde album in May 2007. Another Surrey University Tonmeister, he's tipped for a great career. More about him later!

Photographer

Surrey Brass is delighted to have the services of several talented photographers@

Email rhjverkerk@aol.com or Roger Walker to purchase prints of the photos on this site.

Concert Promoter, Marketing, Publicity and PR

Dawn McMorrow is our Marketing and Development Officer (a MADO!). She is just about to start an M.Sc in Arts Marketing at Kingston University - very exciting.

Concert Steward

Since Surrey Brass will be busy playing on stage, we really need several people to help us with our massive audiences, ensuring that they pay for tickets, programmes, drinks, tips....

Seriously this is a vital job, we like to treat our supporters with care and courtesy, and this needs people who are willing to set aside a couple of hours on concert day to set up the venue, sell tickets, sort out the bar, help our audiences find their way around, and so on. Oh yes, and if you have some time the week before it helps to have lots of spare drawing pins to put those posters up in the area. No particular skills are needed, just enthusiasm! You will get the satisfaction and fun of working in a small team.

Surrey Brass is especially keen to encourage young people in whatever way we can. You will be able to mention something good about your people skills to put on your cv. These skills are valued by many employers and might just help you along with your future career.

If you think you could do this job, or know anyone suitable please contact us. You do not need to be experienced, just be keen, a few spare hours, and some initiative. Our Vice President is also Front Of House Manager, and will tell you everything you need to know.