Brass Soc
The Brass Society is a fun, friendly, and lively society, all about brass and percussion! We are composed of a brass band, a symphonic brass group, and our beginners and intermediates ensembles, meaning we welcome players of all abilities. We compete in a variety of contests, and we play in several concerts every year too. The society has an active social life including trips to the pub, games nights, our famous pudding social, and many more socials. We also arrange a tour annually, which in 2024 was to Barcelona (AKA Brasselona).
Brass Band
The brass band or “main band” is our largest ensemble and is professionally conducted and unauditioned. The band is mostly made up of cornets, tenor horns, baritone horns, euphoniums, trombones, tubas, and both tuned and untuned percussion, however we also welcome many trumpet and french horn players every year. Our conductor Tom Stoneman takes us through a wide range of music including marches, hymns, pop, jazz, brass band classics and many more! We compete in contests throughout the year including Wychavon, UniBrass, Areas, and Whit Friday, as well as performing in concerts such as Christmas concerts, TriUni with the university brass bands of Leeds and Durham, and our annual leavers concert in the summer. The main band rehearses from 5-7:30pm on a Wednesday in the ensemble room.
Symphonic Brass
Symphonic brass is an auditioned ten-piece orchestral brass ensemble tackling more challenging works from the chamber brass repertoire for trumpet, french horn, trombone, and tuba players. Symphonic play a wide range of pieces such as classical works, film music, jazz, and other chamber brass favourites. The ensemble performs frequently in the local area, often in collaboration with other music centre societies. The Symphonic Brass ensemble rehearses on Fridays from 5-7:30pm in the ensemble room.
Beginners’ and Intermediates’ Brass
The beginners’ brass group gives anyone the chance to learn to play a brass instrument! We hold weekly rehearsals as well as offering one-on-one mentoring with a member of the main band. You don’t even need an instrument as we lend cornets, tenor horns, baritone horns, euphoniums, trombones, and tubas out to the band. The intermediates’ band provides more challenging music as a steppingstone from beginners’ to main band. The beginners’ group rehearses from 3pm-4pm and the intermediates’ group rehearses from 4-5pm on Wednesdays in the ensemble room.
Clips from various competitions and events groups within Brass Soc have performed at:
