About our Training Band

We have about 40 players in our Training Band, from seven years of age upwards. Most join as complete beginners, but some may have started learning elsewhere and joined us to gain experience of playing in a band as well as having the benefit of our group tuition.

Each player has an hour’s session every week, with half the time spent in a small tutor group and the other half playing in the Training Band. All the tuition is provided by our team of volunteer tutors and helpers, which includes a number of players from our Youth Band.

We play in MYBB’s two concerts each year and also appear at a number of local events such as Summer and Christmas Fairs, Garden Parties and Rose Queen festivities. We hold an annual Training Band workshop to widen players’ skills, and take part in contests, including Newcastle under Lyme Music Festival.

Players are ready to fill places in the Junior Band once they have mastered a number of basic skills such as playing a range of notes and rhythms, and also ensemble skills, such as following the conductor and playing together.

Musical Director Cath Wood

Cath started piano lessons at aged 4, she learned the recorder at school once she was 6 and this was a gateway instrument to learning the clarinet and tenor saxophone. When younger, she played in Barnsley Junior Concert Band and then Barnsley Youth Orchestra followed by the Strathclyde University Concert Band when living and studying in Glasgow.

Cath had a break from playing in ensembles while starting work and a family. All 3 of her children play brass instruments and have benefited from the fabulous opportunities at MYBB. Once her youngest child joined training band in early 2017, Cath started volunteering with junior band. She then became a trustee, taking on the role of Welfare Officer with responsibility for safeguarding and the welfare of players and volunteers. Inspired by her children, Cath taught herself to play the cornet and now plays solo cornet for Macclesfield Brass, a local community band.

She has taught primary and secondary age pupils and has been teaching A level Chemistry at a sixth form college since 2006, where she was Head of Chemistry for 12 years and is now part of the college quality team with responsibility for the Continuing Professional Development of staff.

Cath started in the role of Musical Director of the training band in September 2023.

About our Junior Band

Our Junior Band is not just the stepping stone between our Training band and Youth Band, it is very much a band in its own right with a full calendar of contest and jobs to prepare for. There are now approximately 30 players in the band currently with an age range from 9 to 15 years old.

Rehearsals often start with sectional sessions to help the players really get to grips with the technical challenges of the music they are practising. The band has played at many school and community events such as on South Park bandstand in Macclesfield, as well performing at our regular Christmas and Summer concerts with the whole organisation.

The Junior Band has a fantastic record of achievement in contests and competitions, for example at the National Youth Brass Band Championships and the Newcastle-under-Lyme music festival.

Musical Director Tim Grindey

Tim began his playing career at the age of seven, joining Bollington Training Band on Cornet, and progressing up to Bollington Brass Band at the age of 10. Tim also joined the South East Cheshire Youth Band under Louise Renshaw.
Having moved from Bollington Brass, Tim joined the Band of the Cheshire Constabulary under David Woollam, where he also became a member of the Drum Corps.

Tim became Musical Director of the MYBB Drum Corps which successfully ran from  2012 to 2018. Having grown with MYBB from a player, Tim took to conducting under Louise and Cheryl with the Junior Band as Deputy MD, and became Junior Band Musical Director and a Trustee in March 2014.

Tim is a plumbing and heating engineer by trade and ran his own business from 2010.

About our Youth Band

The Youth Band is our most senior band and has around 40 members aged up to 19 years old drawn from areas in and around Macclesfield.

The band participates in several competitions each year including The National Youth Brass Band Championships, Whit Friday Marches, The National Youth Entertainment Championships of Great Britain and more.

In recent years the Youth Band has won the Tameside Youth Championship at the Whit Friday Marches three times and in 2017 won the Brass Factor competition held in Holmfirth

The Youth band performs at many concerts in the local community helping to raise money for charity as well as providing excellent playing experiences for our members.

Every two years we enjoy going on tour abroad and have performed in Paris in 2007, Holland in 2009 and 2013, Belgium in 2011, London in 2015, the Isle of Wight in 2017 and 2023, and Belgium in 2019.

Musical Director Louise Renshaw

Having started piano lessons at the age of six, Louise was handed a rusty old euphonium at high school where she enjoyed free lessons with school peripatetic, Norman Ashcroft (then principal cornet with the world renowned Fairey Band). She joined Stockport Schools Band when it formed in 1978 and went on to play solo baritone for The Poynton Band under Alan Lawton MBE for 8 years.

Louise began her conducting career at Poynton Youth Brass Band in 1984, moved to South East Cheshire Youth Band in 2002 and became a founder Trustee and Musical Director of Macclesfield Youth Brass Band in 2005.

In recognition of her voluntary services to bands and the community Louise has been awarded the Paul Harris Fellowship by the Rotary Club of Great Britain, nominated for Cheshire Woman of the Year twice and won both the Imagine FM Teacher of the Year and Silk FM Teacher of the Year awards. In 2018 she was presented with the Brian Hicks Memorial Shield by Brass Bands England in recognition of her services to youth banding. In October 2023, Louise was winner of the Brass Bands England Conductor’s Award and in January 2025 she received the Mortimer Medal in recognition of her services in fostering new generations of brass band musicians.

Her professional background is in advertising and marketing and she ran her own consultancy business since 1995. Louise has also worked as a Wider Opportunities music tutor for the Love Music Trust. In 2017 she took over the Classworx Schoolwear business in Macclesfield which supplies school uniform to many schools in Macclesfield and the surrounding areas.