Tredegar Town Band brings Christmas Fantasia to Morley Town Hall
Welsh award-winning brass band, Tredegar Town Band performs Wainwright’s Christmas Fantasia along with other Christmas brass band favourites at Morley Town Hall on Saturday 12 December.
Under the baton of Musical Director Ian Porthouse, the Tredegar Town Band will perform Christmas brass band favourites including Smith’s lively Santaclaustraphobia, one of the most popular pieces of Christmas music – Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh-ride, Johnson’s 100% Christmas and Holst’s In the Bleak Midwinter featuring a tenor horn solo by Hannah Drage. The band will also perform Wainwright’s Christmas Processional, Anker’s Lonely Boy, Turrin’s tender Hymn for Diana and Bates’ Swiss Nocturne featuring a baritone solo by Jack Lapthorne.
Over the last 40 years Tredegar Town Band has become one of the banding world’s most respected elite performers – as well as multiple winners of major competitions; from numerous Welsh Regional Championships to claiming the British Open title in 2010 and again in 2013. Voted 4BarsRest ‘Band of the Year’ in 2010, the band continues to represent South Wales’ industrial town that bears its name with pride. This was literally so with the 2014 BAFTA Award winning film, Pride where the band provided a major part of the musical score and made a cameo appearance alongside stars Bill Nighy and Imelda Staunton! The band also played in the huge ‘Pride’ celebratory march in London, has recently recorded with renowned folk group 3 Bucket Jones and has worked with film producers for a forthcoming animated release about the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin.
Tonight’s conductor, Ian Porthouse, is regarded as one of the brass band movement’s leading conductors, educators, performers and teachers. The Head of Brass Band Studies at Birmingham Conservatoire hails from Cumbria. Aged sixteen he became leader of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain and his outstanding talents soon saw him become Principal Cornet with the Black Dyke Band. In 2008 Ian accepted the position as Musical Director of Tredegar Band a move that has since seen the band become one of the world’s leading contest and concert ensembles. In 2010 Ian was voted Conductor of the Year by the influential online magazine 4BarsRest and whilst under his direction the Tredegar Town Band has also released critically acclaimed CD recordings and in 2015 performed alongside the Rambert Ballet Company at Sadler’s Wells.
Tickets for the Tredegar Town Band at Morley Town Hall on Saturday 12 December are priced at £11.50 (£9.50 concessions) and can be purchased from the Box Office on 0113 376 0318 or book online at www.leedsconcertseason.com