The NYBBGB Youth Band Summer Concert 2026 - The Forum Bath - 8th August 2026

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE: The NYBBGB Youth Band under the direction of Guest Conductor Lieutenant Colonel Lauren Petritz-Watts and Assistant Conductor Tommy Tynan, winner of The NYBBGB Young Conductors’ Competition 2026, featuring Guest Soloist Ross Knight (tuba). The Forum Bath, 8th August 2026. Following three sell-out concerts in 2025 and two sell-out Easter concerts earlier this year, The NYBBGB Youth Band — featuring more than 90 of the UK’s finest young brass and percussion players — performs for one night only after an intensive week of rehearsals and tuition at Taunton School. Joining the artistic team as Assistant Conductor is Tommy Tynan, who worked alongside Lieutenant Colonel Lauren Petritz-Watts throughout the course before making his conducting debut with The NYBBGB in this concert, following his victory in The NYBBGB Young Conductors’ Competition 2026. The concert theme REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE is explored through a musical journey that reflects sustainability, transformation and renewal. The programme considers how music can mirror environmental responsibility through the reworking of existing musical ideas, the reinvention of classical repertoire in new forms and the creative reuse of materials both within performance and composition. Across the evening, audiences were invited to experience how the brass band tradition can engage meaningfully with contemporary environmental themes, using music to reflect on regeneration, memory and innovation. Programme Highlights The concert opens with Jacob Vilhelm Larsen’s ‘Ad Astra’, an uplifting and contemporary work whose title translates as ‘to the stars’, celebrating aspiration, progress and human potential. The programme also features Ralph Vaughan Williams’ much-loved ‘Concerto for Tuba in F Minor’ in a new brass band arrangement by Philip Littlemore, performed by internationally acclaimed Guest Soloist Ross Knight. Originally written for orchestra in 1954, this new interpretation breathes fresh life into a classic work, reflecting the concert’s theme of reuse and reinvention. Themes of reflection and renewal continue in Liz Lane’s lyrical ‘Serenata for Brass Band’, written in memory of a much-loved band member and celebrating the enduring community spirit of brass banding. The NYBBGB’s ongoing commitment to innovation is showcased in the world première of Simon Dobson’s ‘MACHINE!’, a brand-new commission made possible by the generous support of Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd and inspired by environmental responsibility, sustainability and the relationship between humanity and industry. The concert also includes the world première of ‘In Memoriam: E.H.’ by Martyn Brabbins, President of The NYBBGB, written in tribute to former President Elgar Howarth and honouring his lasting influence on British brass music. Johan de Meij’s spectacular ‘Extreme Make-over’ brings the programme to an exhilarating conclusion. Inspired by themes from Tchaikovsky transformed through continuous musical metamorphosis, the work perfectly embodies the concert theme of transformation and reuse, even incorporating tuned bottles within the percussion section to create unique recycled sound-worlds. Together, the programme explores how music can reimagine existing ideas, preserve heritage and inspire new thinking — celebrating creativity, sustainability and the future of brass band music. This concert was presented with the generous support of World of Brass. Find out more about this concert & download the concert programme here: https://www.nybbgb.org.uk/archive/con... Video produced by Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd and World of Brass.