The Ulverston Victoria High School, Wind Band was playing with what I would call a full orchestra in a concert where The Royal Marines had the 'privilege' of playing with them later on.
Richard Butler their teacher, leader and conductor had done a superb job of inspiring and guiding them.
They opened with a piece that showed off their talents of being precisely in time and in tune - not a thing you expect of youngsters, some of whom I understand were only 11 years old.
"The Showstopper" by Osterling showed their talents off and certainly made me sit up and take notice.
Their playing was crisp and precise. Closing one's eyes would have made it difficult to tell one was not listening to the Halle.
Opening them revealed some very young children hunched forward whose body language suggested a lack of confidence.
Had they been able to hear objectively what I could, then I'm sure their stance would have changed dramatically and they would have appeared confident and assured. The latter was true of some of the soloists who were top notch.
As time went on we suspected they enjoyed playing with their respected adults and I hope the thought occurred to them - "I'm as good as they are". It's true - I thought they were.
The school is looking for sponsors for their next few years activities . I hope these will come in quantity as Richard Butler once again has planned a series of many activities which will take them to Europe - to Strasbourg and The Black Forest in Germany in July 16 to 21, 2010 . This kind of activity brings confidence and is a deserved complement to the studies of students who will be working hard at school in other areas other than music.
I shall be supporting their endeavors - contact Richard Butler , their outstanding teacher at
rbu at ulverstonvictoria.cumbria.sch.uk if you want to do likewise.
If in doubt , come and listen to the UVHS Swing Band at the Dickensian Festival at the Market Cross at 5 pm this next Saturday, 27th November.
Hopefully I'll be getting a version of this with my camera up onto Youtube shortly afterwards - as I did in the Spring this year!
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