2017 News
 | Training band award winners10 December 2017 Well done Matthew Duke and Rose Smith who were jointly awarded the Mike Swatman Shield for most improved young player at our recent Training Band Christmas Concert, and to Tim Rowlandson and Lisa Duke who received the Trevor Jones Award for most improved adult player. It was a hard choice as we have many players who are making good progress in our training band. |
 | 2nd place for NFB at Wessex25 November 2017 We competed in the Wessex Winter Contest at Bournemouth on Saturday, playing Olympus by Philip Harper. We enjoyed rehearsing the piece and came 2nd out of 5 bands in the Second Section, and 6th out of 13 in the overall gradings. Well done Judith from Training Band who competed for the first time on timpani! |
 | New Rehearsal Venue12 September 2017 NFB have moved! After 7 years at Applemore College, we have now started rehearsing at Hounsdown School, near Totton. Although Applemore has been good for us - it provided us with the space needed for establishing our training band - we have now outgrown it and are looking forward to playing in the excellent acoustics of the drama room at Hounsdown. |
 | 40th Anniversary Celebrations24 June 2017 New Forest Brass is 40 years old! To celebrate, we invited past members of the band to join the current senior and training bands to a reunion dinner and concert at Hounsdown School. The highlight of the concert was a performance by a massed band of over 70 past and current members of the band, as well as seeing so many friends from over the years. Thank you to everyone who took part, and especially for Mike Miller and the committee for their tireless work in organising the event. |
 | NFB win prize at Whit Friday Marches!9 June 2017 We competed in the Whit Friday Marches in Saddleworth, near Manchester, for the third year running. This year the weather was fantastic and we had a smooth route round the villages, managing 7 contests in all. Although the results were mixed, in Denshaw we were awarded £75 for the 2nd place 2nd section band! Well done everyone. Most importantly, we had a great time, soaking in the atmosphere of this unique event. Thanks to everyone who came along! |
 | Brassy Ladies Moonwalk for charity13 May 2017 Well done to the Brassy Ladies from NFB, who walked 26 miles through London in their bras last weekend and raised over £3000 for breast cancer charities! |
 | NFB Relegated to Third Section11 March 2017 A disappointing result in Torquay at the West of England Championships. We worked hard at a difficult test piece, 'Rhapsody in Brass', by Dean Goffin, and were reasonably happy with our performance. Unfortunately the adjudicators disagreed, and we were awarded 16th place out of 17 bands. After 3 years in the Second Section, we will be returning to the Third Section in 2018. The result did not spoil our weekend - we still had a great time, going out for Chinese on the Friday night and Indian on the Saturday. Thanks to everyone who made it so much fun. See you all on Tuesday to start rehearsing our summer programme! |
 | Success at Wessex Training Band Contest29 January 2017 New Forest Training Band took part in the Wessex Training Band Contest yesterday in Downton. After starting the day with the National Anthem, we played a 20 minute set of music including Slaidburn, Abide with Me, Nellie the Elephant (featuring Mel Palmer on the Bb bass solo), Indiana Jones, Run, and 42nd Street. We were really pleased with our performance, which had lots of energy! We were delighted to be awarded 2nd place in the Training Band section as well as the Worsdale Cup for the best hymn tune performance of the day. Well done to all of Training Band for all your hard work and enthusiasm, and to Chris and the main band helpers! |
 | Exam Success for Hilary28 January 2017 Congratulations to Hilary Hinks, who has passed Grade 3 Cornet with distinction after taking up the instrument less than 2 years ago. Well done Hilary! |