West Lothian Schools Brass Band can claim to be one of the most successful youth brass bands in the UK The band was formed in 1975 to encourage young musicians from West Lothian Council’s schools instrumental music tuition programme. In the early 1980’s, Nigel Boddice was invited as a guest conductor to lead the band for a weekend course, and this led to his appointment as musical director - a post which Nigel holds to this day.
During the intervening period the band has achieved an impressive list of results at both national and international levels. They have been Scottish Youth Brass Band champions 7 times, with a hat trick of wins between 1985 and 1987 followed by four wins in a row in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. They have won the British Youth Brass Band Championship on no less than 11 occasions, including a hat trick of victories in 2003, 2004 and 2005. The band have also been European Youth Champions on three occasions in total. To complete this impressive list of achievements, they were also BBC Radio 2 Youth Brass Band of the Year in 1998, and were awarded a Gold Award at the Sydney International Music Festival in 1998.
Nigel Boddice enjoys a busy and impressive international conducting career and was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2005 for his services to “youth music in Scotland”.
This web site records the bands’ numerous achievements between the years 2003 and 2010 in photographs, press reports, audio and video formats to find out more click on this link, or follow the Events 2003 - 2010 link below.
The band provides opportunities for players aged between 12 and 21 years old. The West Lothian Schools Brass Band has released a series of six CDs and a DVD. Click here for more details. Another CD was recorded between Christmas and New Year 2009.
The band is a credit to the excellent instrumental music tuition programme which has been established in all of West Lothian’s Schools.
The band has also performed concerts with many international brass soloists over the years including Don Lusher, Patrick Sheridan, Steven Mead, Sheona White, Roger Webster and the Child’s Brothers. The band have toured abroad to Australia, North America and Germany.
Please note that although every effort is made to ensure that the information provided on this site is correct, it is gathered from a variety of sources, and no guarantee is given regarding it’s accuracy.
If you have any comments or additional information, please contact the webmaster.
If you wish to contact the band directly please contact our band co-ordinator, Mary Downs.
