Tez Smith Joins BYBA Festival Brass Team

Tez Smith started his drum corps career in 1985 with Stoke BB Drum & Bugle Corps where he marched until their disbandment in 1992. From 1993 to 1998 he marched lead trumpet with the Sunrisers Drum & Bugle Corps, during which time he spent 1994 and 1995 in the USA with The Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps where he was a featured soloist.

Tez finished his marching days with the Kidsgrove Scouts in 1999 where he is now the brass Caption Head and musical arranger. As well as teaching at the Kidsgrove Scouts since 1996, Tez was also invited to teach the Capitol Sound Drum and Bugle corps in USA during the summer of 1996, further developing his musical and teaching ability.

In 1997 he was a member of the brass teaching staff at the British Youth Band Association’s Festival and is looking forward to returning this year, ten years on.

He is currently studying for a PGCE in Secondary Music at Manchester Metropolitan University.In addition to teaching and writing music, Tez is still a committed performer and currently performs with the High Brass Jazz Orchestra and The VCO Big Band. He also plays with Shades Jazz Orchestra, the Wigan Jazz Club Big Band and the Wigan Youth Jazz Orchestra performing with the likes of John Dankworth, Cleo Laine and the Dankworth Dynasty and Eric Delaney.

As well as this Tez performs with local theatre groups in pit orchestras playing classic shows such as Les Miserables and South Pacific and plays on studio recording sessions for various musical groups across a variety of genres.

Steve Muzio, Open Key Brass Caption Head for 2007 says “Tez is a fabulous addition to the line up of talented staff that we have put together for everyone and he has shown in the past just how versatile and unique he really is not only as a player, but also in his teaching methods. It gives me great pleasure to welcome him again to the team for 2007”

More details can be found on the BYBA Festival Web Site at www.bybafestival.org.uk, or you can contact Steve directly at brass [at] bybafestival [dot] org [dot] uk