Thurrock Marching Brass Scoop Top Awards At BYBA I&E

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thurrock_marching_brass_100x100Eighteen young members of Thurrock Marching Brass travelled to Staffordshire on Sunday 23 November 2014 to compete in multiple categories and against other competitors from across the UK in the British Youth Band Association Individuals & Ensembles competition and brought home seven Gold, six Silver, one Bronze plus three of the guard performers scored high enough to make it through to the final four competitors for Young Guard Performer of the Year.

The development of the members in all forms of music and performing arts gave these talented young members the opportunity to pit their wits in both the musical categories and the colourguard categories, all of which were banded into appropriate age groups, and they certainly enjoyed themselves.

Winning isn’t everything to these young members, who have been taught to respect and appreciate anyone regardless of age who has the courage to do what they do and do it well. The maturity shown by such young performers who congratulated every competitor and celebrated every success was incredible to see and to be a part of. Success comes as a by-product of good training, determination to succeed and a willingness to learn at all times. When you add these ingredients together, achievement in whatever form and no matter how small is always possible.

Alongside this incredible achievement, three of our colourguard members also scored high enough to be placed into the final four to battle it out for the coveted Young Guard Performer of the Year trophy, which saw them perform again in front of a packed arena.
Emily Easter, Chloe Mepham (the 2013 winner of the trophy) and first time individual performer Rhianna Leighton all upped their games in the final and were simply amazing to watch. Coming out on top this year was young superstar Emily Easter, whose smile said it all when she was announced the winner. With Chloe and Rhianna both receiving Silver medals for their performances and congratulating Emily on her win the day couldn’t have been capped any better for everyone.

Speaking of the day, Corps Director, Ken Mansfield comments, “I have long believed that the only limitations on youngsters to be able to achieve do not exist in their minds but in ours, their instructors. Every single day these youngsters, some as young as 5 and 6 years of age, prove to me and to all the staff here at Thurrock Marching Brass that given the right surroundings, support and work ethics that they can and will achieve just about anything they want to. Today was a culmination of many weeks of hard work in which these young members created their own performances and pit their efforts and training against some of the best in the UK. I couldn’t be any prouder of them than I am right now, but the thing that has impressed me the most is that even at this young age, these youngsters know exactly how to behave regardless of if they were successful in winning a medal or not. Now that, regardless of how old you are, is something precious that we will continue to develop here at Thurrock Marching Brass. That respect for your fellow competitor and appreciation for what it takes to perform is priceless. Congratulations to every single member, and to all the many helpers and staff that surround them to allow them the opportunity to do what they do so well. This has given these youngsters a great boost as we prepare for the winter and summer programs currently either underway or just about to start”

Thurrock Marching Brass are proud to perform as much as they can within the community and you can keep up to date with all their engagements on our website below or by following their exploits on Facebook.

2014 I&E Collage

Posted by on Wednesday, November 26th, 2014. Filed under British Youth Band Association, FrontPage Feature.