Proud as punch today. I’ve listened to all our three bands deliver excellent performances, starting with Liz and the training band and then a well deserved bronze award for Harry and the juniors. And tonight, a fantastic third place and a gold award in the Championship section for the youth band. Awesome day for everyone at MYBB
Receives The King’s Award for Voluntary Service
Macclesfield Youth Brass Band
Receives The King’s Award for Voluntary Service
Macclesfield Youth Brass band (MYBB), a volunteer led organisation, has been awarded The King’s Award for Voluntary Service for 2025. This is the highest award a local voluntary group can receive in the UK and is equivalent to an MBE.
MYBB has been enriching the lives of young people for 20 years, through music tuition, friendships and inspiring performance opportunities, with a strong emphasis on community and inclusion. At the heart of MYBB is a dedicated team of over 40 volunteers, including trustees, parents and many enthusiastic young player helpers, whose year round commitment ensures MYBB continues to grow and bring life-affirming opportunities to the next generation of children.
The organisation, which is a registered charity, has a youth band, a junior band and a training band which recruits complete beginners, providing tuition and the use of an instrument for just £5 per month. The band was set up to provide low-cost access to music tuition for all children, reducing barriers wherever possible to allow any child to take part. Over the years the band has undertaken many initiatives to encourage and assist children who might otherwise not have had the opportunity to reap the many known benefits that playing a musical instrument, especially in a group setting, can bring.
Since its formation in 2005, MYBB has welcomed hundreds of young musicians, some of whom have gone on to study music in higher education at Conservatoire level. There are currently over 100 young musicians from age 7 to 19 years old. The success of the organisation depends on the invaluable contribution of its willing volunteers who maintain its ethos of passing on skills to the next generation in a fun, inclusive and encouraging environment.
MYBB is one of 231 local charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to receive the prestigious award this year. Their work, along with others from across the UK, reminds us of all the ways fantastic volunteers are contributing to their local communities and working to make life better for those around them.
The King’s Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by local volunteer groups to support their communities. It was created in 2002 to celebrate Her Late Majesty The Queen’s Golden Jubilee and was continued following the accession of His Majesty The King. 2025 marks the third year of The King’s Award for Voluntary Service.
Representatives of MYBB will receive the award crystal and certificate from Lady Redmond, Lord-Lieutenant of Cheshire, in the coming months. In addition, two volunteers from MYBB will attend a Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace next summer, along with other recipients of this year’s award.
Louise Renshaw, founder Trustee and Chair of MYBB said: “We are extremely honoured to receive this award in recognition of the outstanding work of our volunteers. Running a youth organisation requires a wide array of skills, knowledge and commitment to ensure best practice across all areas. We have been very fortunate to have parents and young people who are willing to give their time to make MYBB so special. Their contribution to young lives and the local community cannot be underestimated.”
“This year the band has been celebrating its 20th anniversary with a series of special events including a gala concert at The Royal Northern College of Music and a concert tour to Belgium. The news that we have received this award really is the icing on the cake.”
The next opportunity to see MYBB is at their Christmas concert on 13th December at the Fallibroome Academy when they will be presenting a live ‘music to film’ performance of Wallace & Gromit’s A Grand Day Out. Tickets are just £5 adults/£2 for children and can be purchased in advance by emailing admin@mybb.org.uk.
Enquiries about joining any of the MYBB bands should be made to joinus@mybb.org.uk
Here is all you need to know about cleaning and caring for your instrument.
Macclesfield Youth Brass Band were crowned the new Brass Factor champions on their debut performance at the Brass Factor entertainment competition held at the Picturedrome in Holmfirth last Saturday (28th October).
They scared off strong competition with their Halloween themed programme featuring a 32 member Zombie band, led by Musical Director Morticia Addams and Uncle Fester as the compere!
Not only did the band win the overall first prize, they also won the trophy for the Audience Vote and Best Soloist, thanks to a brilliant performance by 14-year-old Alex Walton on xylophone.
The competition is based on the X Factor format with each band giving a 20 minute performance and then facing feedback from the panel of four judges.
One judge said:
“I can see why 120 young people turn up to play in this band every Friday night, it’s so much fun. All power to Macclesfield Youth Band, every town should have this.”
Commenting on Alex’s performance, another judge said.
“Wow, he is such a talented young player with a great future, what a star.”
Musical Director Louise Renshaw said:
“This was a great night for the youth band, competing against some notable adult bands, this was our best competition result to date. We had worked really hard to include a lot of drama and fun in our set and the audience reaction was amazing. The players were fantastic, totally getting into the spirit of it.”
The band’s next performance is a Remembrance concert at St Michaels Church, Macclesfield on Saturday 11th November organised by Macclesfield Castle Rotary Club.
Macclesfield Youth Brass Band has three bands and a drum corps catering for local young musicians aged 7 to 18 years. They rehearse every Friday evening at the Fallibroome Academy. For more information visit mybb.org.uk.
Photos: Please credit Photography By Rachael.
This weekend Macclesfield Youth Brass Band will premiere a new work by British Composer Award winner Lucy Pankhurst.
Commissioned for the band’s performance at the Barnaby Festival, ‘Contact Light’ (the words spoken by Buzz Aldrin as the Lunar Module gently touched the surface of the moon) fuses the worlds of brass and electronics to create a journey into space.
The theme for Macclesfield’s Barnaby Festival is ‘Space to Breathe’ and the new work uses the concept as an adventure through space, accompanied by narrations and quotes from Carl Sagan of NASA. With the addition of electric guitars and electronic equipment such as Novation Launchpad controllers and tablet sequencer apps within the performance, the band hopes to create a futuristic landscape to capture the imagination.
Award winning actor Brian Blessed has also kindly recorded the narration used within the piece. MYBB Musical Director Louise Renshaw comments,
“We wanted to produce something that goes beyond anything we’ve done before, combining music technology with the brass band setting. The piece is very atmospheric and Lucy has delivered a superb work that is packed with exciting and unusual elements which we hope will enthral the audience.”
Lucy Pankhurst said,
“This is the second time I have worked with Macclesfield Youth Band and it’s been another exciting and totally unique project. Starting with a workshop where we all got to grips with using Launchpad technology, we have grappled with many technical challenges to reach what I think will be a really entertaining performance. It’s always brilliant to work with an organisation that wants to explore new musical territory and work outside its comfort zone.”
The youth band’s performance at Barnaby Festival is part of the Brass Band Bonanza in St Michaels churchyard on Sunday 26th June which starts at 1pm and is free to attend. The youth band will perform a Space themed programme of music including ‘Contact Light’ from 2.45pm inside St Michaels Church.
The band will also perform the new work at Clonter Opera on Saturday 25th June as part of the Love Music Trust concert starting at 7pm. Tickets available on the door.
MYBB is once again teaming up with British Composer Award winner Lucy Pankhurst to come up with an original and ground breaking project for the youth band.
Using Novation launchpad technology, the young musicians have been working with Lucy on the foundations for a new composition to be premiered at this year’s Barnaby Festival in the towm.
More to follow
MYBB delivered a colourful, high energy 20 minute programme on the theme of the Rio olympics for this year’s Action Research Youth Band Entertainment competition held in the Opera House at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool.
Their efforts got them amongst the prizes too with Alex Walton collecting the Most Outstanding soloist prize for his rendition of On The Track on zylophone and Angus Currie collecting the prize for Best euphonium.
Well done to soloists and band alike for a thoroughly entertaining day out.
“Blown away”, “ A night to remember”, and “WOW!”. Just some of the comments which have been coming from the audience at MYBB’s Tenth Anniversary concert on 4th July. The concert hall at the Royal Northern College of Music was filled with players, sound and enthusiasm as MYBB’s three bands and drum corps all demonstrated how far the organisation has progressed in ten years. They were joined by some of the band’s former players who were thrilled to return and be a part of the celebrations.
The centrepiece of the evening was the first performance of a piece commissioned by the band from award winning composer Lucy Pankhurst to mark the occasion. The piece featured all MYBB’s players, with sections for the separate bands and drum corps as well as passages for all playing together, including a finale described by Lucy as “seriously disco”!. The overall effect was stunning, both visually and musically, and the audience gave an extended standing ovation to both composer and players. The composition, Brass Roots; Musical Wings, was the product of a workshop project run by Lucy for the band earlier in the year to involve the players in creating ideas for the piece and to give them the opportunity to talk about the type of music which they enjoyed playing. This proved to be a very successful collaboration and the piece did everything the band had asked for plus very much more.
It was an evening full of highlights with the Training Band Rocking around the Clock, the Drum Corps’ sticks glowing red in the dark and the Junior Band catching the excitement of 007’s famous theme tune, not to mention two brilliant solos, “Virtuosity” from Youth Band solo cornet player, George Wright, and “The Carioca” from Tubalaté’s euphonium player, Paul Walton.
Another fine soloist, Jodie Buckland, led everyone in the final and most fitting end to the first ten years, with Abba’s “Thank you for the Music”.
MYBB’s performance of Brass Roots; Musical Wings fills RNCM’s Concert Hall
