Just what the Doctor ordered

A spoonful of talent certainly helps as a number of Foresters Brass players deliver at the Yorkshire and Humberside Brass Band Association Contest.

Foresters Brass owes a lot to the inclusion of students within the band. This helps us keep a healthy injection of youth throughout the years whilst giving the study-happy a welcome break from exams, textbooks and revision.

University of Nottingham is where the majority of students that are involved with Foresters Brass journey from every week for rehearsals, concerts and contests. The pull of music is so strong within the institution that the students that attend the University created their own Brass Band to play in and work for alongside their own commitments.

Already featured on Foresters website for her efforts raising charity funds, Marcie Williams, Co-Principal Euphonium, was amongst the many soloists featured at the recent Yorkshire and Humberside Brass Band competition. The University band performed a hymn, Passion Chorale, to begin with before moving on to their chosen test piece.

Penlee, written to commemorate the lives of the brave RNLI crew, volunteers and stricken seamen that ultimately lost their lives on the 19th of December, 1981, delves into the depths of emotion and explores the range of the brass band to represent the violent, unpredictable weather encountered that night.

"The greatest act of courage that I have ever seen, and am ever likely to see, was the penultimate courage and dedication shown by the Penlee crew when it manoeuvred back alongside the casualty in over 60 ft breakers and rescued four people shortly after the Penlee had been bashed on top of the casualty's hatch covers. They were truly the bravest eight men I've ever seen, who were also totally dedicated to upholding the highest standards of the RNLI."

- Lieutenant Commander Smith, US Navy

After the competition and all bands had played, Medicine student Marcie Williams was named as Best Instrumentalist of the section, taking home a trophy to keep as a reminder of her achievement. There was also a winning trophy for Conductor George Newbould, once of Forester's fame, as he took home the "Winning Conductor" award.

We are hugely proud of the time and effort our students continue to pour into their musical lives alongside the professional development for their chosen careers.

Congratulations to students Marcie (Medicine), Nat (Medicine), Chris (Medicine), Nick (Physics), Ellie (Music), Andy (Maths), Mhairi (Pharmacy) and Matt (Chemistry) for their fantastic result!