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UEL Concert Band celebrates 27th year in grand style

Friday 24 February 2006

On Saturday 18th February, the Concert Band of the University of East London (UEL) celebrated its 27th year of performing together in grand style, with a concert at the Longbridge Road campus.

The concert was enjoyed by over 220 guests including Councillor Marie West, Mayor of Barking & Dagenham, Councillor Masood Ahmad, Deputy Mayor of Waltham Forest and Councillor Pearson Shillingford, Deputy Civic Ambassador of Newham.

The 70-strong Concert Band, including young people from local schools and colleges, performed a varied programme of popular classics including a selection from Phantom of the Opera and The Wizard of Oz, Vaughan Williams’ Folk Song Suite, and Khatchaturian’s Sabre Dance.

Baritone Jeff Rasbash, Director of the MSc in Pipeline Technology at UEL, gave stirring solo performances of the Lord Chancellor’s Song from Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe, and ‘Down Below’, the saga of a London sewer worker.

The concert was directed and conducted by Dr Donald Hoskins, who founded the Concert Band in 1979, after a series of successful music courses for local young people. The band has since continued for 27 consecutive years, attracting celebrity guest artists including Dame Vera Lynn.

Dr Hoskins said: “It has been a wonderful evening, and the band have performed magnificently. I am particularly proud that we have people of all ages – from 11 years old to over 80!”

Dr Hoskins, who has conducted and performed all over Europe, joined North East London Polytechnic in 1967 is Honorary Doctor of Music at UEL. He has performed successful concerts at Barking Abbey and he is now looking forward to conducting at the Mayor’s Charity Concert on Sunday 2nd April at The Broadway Theatre, Barking, to raise funds for Macmillan Nurses and Barking & Dagenham Carers.

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For details and pictures contact Patrick Wilson: 020 8223 2061 or 07951 797 975

The University of East London University (UEL) is a leading modern (post-1992) university, rated in the top 5 in the UK for teaching and in the top 10 for research, according to The Guardian, with a strong track-record in widening participation and working with industry. Today, UEL is a global learning community, with 19,000 students from over 100 countries worldwide.

Our vision is to achieve recognition, both nationally and internationally, as a successful and inclusive regional university proud of our diversity, committed to new modes of learning which focus on students and enhance their employability, and renowned for our contribution to social, cultural and economic development, especially through our research and scholarship. www.uel.ac.uk

History of the University of East London Concert Band In 1979, Donald Hoskins, then Head of Music at UEL, organised a two-day brass band course, to which he invited players from schools and bands in the local boroughs. He was assisted in his task by various musical advisors in different boroughs and by his friend over many years, the late Harry Mortimer CBE, who was himself a world-renowned figure in the field of brass band music and a conductor of many national championship bands. The first major course and concert was held in February 1980, and proved enormously popular with the players and public alike. Following this success, there were immediate demands for the inclusion of reed as well as brass instruments for subsequent study courses.From these early years, the number of participants for the two-day programme steadily rose, so that this annual music event now attracts over seventy performers of all ages, and the event has become acknowledged as a musical highlight in the university's calendar. The performers taking part consist of school children, college students, teachers, bandmasters, music tutors, and general practising musicians. The only criteria adopted was that the performers should ideally possess musicianship of a high order, good technical skill and sight reading ability, a background of playing experience especially in ensemble work and the ability to work constructively with other musicians.

Notes to Editors

The University of East London (UEL) is a global learning community with over 28,000 students from over 120 countries world-wide. Our vision is to achieve recognition, both nationally and internationally, as a successful and inclusive regional university proud of its diversity, committed to new modes of learning which focus on students and enhance their employability, and renowned for our contribution to social, cultural and economic development, especially through our research and scholarship. We have a strong track-record in widening participation and working with industry.

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