Thurrock Marching Brass Enjoys Most Successful I&E To Date
On Sunday 29 November 2015 members of Thurrock Marching Brass traveled to Leicester to compete in the British Youth Band Association (www.byba.org.uk) UK Individuals & Ensembles competition where they would pit their talents against youngsters from across the UK in what has always been an exciting and enjoyable experience for anyone who has taken part.
Individual performers were categorised into age appropriate groups, as were the groups and ensemble teams ranging from percussion, brass, woodwind, Front Line/Tuned Percussion and Colourguard.
The four highest scoring individuals from the Percussion, Brass, Woodwind and Front Line/Tuned Percussion categories (excluding open age) all progressed to compete head to head for the coveted title of the Young Musician of the Year. Thurrock Marching Brass have never managed to take one of these sought after spots up to this competition.
Likewise, the four highest scoring Individual Colourguard scores (excluding open age) for the day progressed to compete head to head for the equally coveted title of Young Guard Performer of the Year. Thurrock Marching Brass have not only been successful in placing performers into this part of the day, but for the two years that it has been in place have come away with the trophy. Would this year emulate the previous two years was the question on everyone’s minds heading into the championships.
An incredibly enthusiastic audience were treated to some truly remarkable and fantastic performances from so many youngsters. It is always a joy to see their courage, dedication and drive to succeed at something that would make most of us tremble at the knees by performing on their own or within small teams in front of a close quarter’s audience and fellow competitors alike. That alone makes each and every performer out there winners in our books and we would like to congratulate each and every one of them from wherever they came from for their efforts. Truly wonderful to see and enjoy.
After all of the performances were completed and before the results ceremony was conducted, the names of the four contestants for the Young Musician of the Year and the Young Guard Performer of the Year were shared with everyone.
For the first time in our re-launch history, Thurrock Marching Brass would have two competitors that made it through to the Young Musician of the Year Final. Rebecca Corcoran on Trumpet and Sophie Corcoran on Front Line/Tuned Percussion. Both Girls were amazing, and if there was any doubt about the multi-talented members of Thurrock Marching Brass, these twin sisters settled any argument on that front, and you will see by how well they also did in other categories too.
After performing again, it was young Sam Healey from Concord who stole the show again with another amazing performance on kit drums to take the title with Silver Medals for both Rebecca and Sophie on this occasion. An incredible achievement by these up and coming stars.
Thurrock Marching Brass’s Colourguard performers again excelled themselves, and with a repeat of the 2014 championships secured no less than three of the four slots for the Young Guard Performer of the Year again. Wonderful performances from Rhianna Leighton and twins Rebecca and Sophie Corcoran put them into the top four performing individual scores for the day and into the final. Rhianna Leighton doing so for the second year running.
It was young Sophie Corcoran who stole the show with a truly remarkable performance that had everyone joining in and feeling a part of the whole effort and which gave her the title of Young Guard Performer of the Year, making it a hat-trick of Titles for Thurrock Marching Brass too. Both Rhianna Leighton and Rebecca Corcoran secured Silver Medals with very different and incredibly enjoyable performances so well done to Sophie on her title and to Rhianna and Rebecca on their Silver Medals in this category.
Everyone was eager to find out all the remaining results, and with the successes above, we were confident that in some of the categories that Thurrock Marching Brass had entered would be successful, but we were not prepared for what followed. In the 8 categories that Thurrock Marching Brass had entered members into, one after another they were awarded the Gold Medal. Yes, it was Gold medals across the board for all of our amazing performers and adding the Silver medals and Young Guard Performer of the Year title to the haul, it was without doubt the most successful Individuals & Ensembles in our re-launch history so far with Twins Rebecca and Sophie Corcoran dominating multiple categories in both music and Colourguard.
The full list of achievements is as follows:-
Individual Mallet – 14 & under GOLD MEDAL Sophie Corcoran
Individual Mallet – 25 & under GOLD MEDAL Laura Pickton
Trio Mallets – 25 & under GOLD MEDAL Laura Pickton, Sophie Corcoran, Brogan Chamberlain
Individual Brass – 14 & under GOLD MEDAL Rebecca Corcoran
Individual Guard – 14 & under GOLD MEDAL Sophie Corcoran
Individual Guard – 18 & under GOLD MEDAL TIE – Rhianna Leighton, Rebecca Corcoran
Duo Guard – 14 & under GOLD MEDAL Rebecca Corcoran, Sophie Corcoran
Ensemble Guard – 14 & under GOLD MEDAL Ellie-May Chamberlain, Ellie Crocombe,
Madison Lindner, Chloe Honor
Young Musician of the Year SILVER MEDAL Rebecca Corcoran, Sophie Corcoran
Young Guard Performer of the Year CHAMPION Sophie Corcoran
Young Guard Performer of the Year SILVER MEDAL Rhianna Leighton, Rebecca Corcoran
Speaking of this amazing set of results, Thurrock Marching Brass Corps Director, Jay Lindner comments “Every year a small group of our talented youngsters feel brave enough to pit their talents against some of the best individual performers at their age levels in the UK. They select their own music, and dedicate their own spare time to working on their performances which is in addition to the normal responsibilities they carry as performers of the corps generally. In some cases, they have even written, produced and taught routines as in the case of Rhianna Leighton for the Ensemble Guard team. Rhianna is just 15 years of age and this demonstrates that our young leader programs are well and truly flourishing which is great to see. All of our youngsters just blew me away and I couldn’t be any prouder than I am right now of each and every one of them but it would be wrong of me not to give a very special mention to two amazing girls, the Corcoran Twins for their skills and performances today. They are an excellent example of just how multi-talented our members all are and I hope that theirs and everyone’s successes today will spur other members on to come along and have a go. With Sophie bringing home a triple crown of titles for the Young Guard Performer of the Year for TMB, it capped off what was a brilliant day for everyone. That and of course the obligatory McDonalds on the way home lol. Well done everyone involved and you made me cry. Again!!”
