The Hathern Band

Dave Newman, Musical Director

Coming from a musical family David began playing the cornet at the age of six. During his formative years he successfully auditioned for a position with the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain, with whom he was a member for five years.

In 1970 he joined the City of Coventry Band on Soprano Cornet. During this time he was fortunate to play at the Royal Albert Hall on several occasions, also playing on many broadcasts and recordings. David was also a member of the famous Men of Brass under the baton of the great Harry Mortimer.

Under his baton Hathern Band has appeared in 4 National Finals including an appearance at the Royal Albert Hall. David became the Musical Director of Hathern Band in 1979 making him, we believe, the longest serving conductor in Leicestershire.

Daves Diary - September 2004

The Midlands Second Section Area Champions with an invitation in September to the National Finals in Harrogate are, Hathern Band. Could the year get any better – YES.

We travelled to Harrogate to fly the flag for Leicestershire on September 11th. We had an excellent rehearsal on Saturday evening at the hotel. We were delighted that Michael Fowles, who has been our professional musical advisor and Phillip McCann (a long time friend and supporter of the Band) both turned up for this rehearsal. I personally, and I am sure the players, really appreciated this given the busy work schedules of both of these.

On September 12th at the Harrogate International Centre the Band gave a performance to be proud of being drawn to play Number 6 out of a 17 Band line up. The 6th to 2nd place were announced and I was more than quietly confident. Then Hathern`s Soprano Cornet player Ian Williams was announced as the player of the day. Then -

IN FIRST PLACE WITH 190 POINTS THE BAND THAT PLAYED NUMBER – 6
HATHERN
THE SECOND SECTION NATIONAL BRASS BAND CHAMPIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN

The hard work must now continue – which is what I said in my April message. Well the hard work did continue and we are now NATIONAL CHAMPIONS. The celebrations I am sure will continue for some time to come yet!

We have had a very full diary of engagements for this year and this continued right up to the Nationals and has continued since. We are still on course to make another CD in celebration of what so far has been an absolutely outstanding year.

I would like to thank the Band for the gifts presented to me to celebrate my 25 years as Musical Director of Hathern Band. But the name of Hathern Band and David Newman forever on the record as National Champions, would have been more than enough.

My 7 commandments on the Bandroom wall will remain in place – we are now a Band on the way up. We must approach 2005 and First Section with the same commitment.

These were to have been my final words until my next message, however, we have just returned from Wychavon Festival of Brass in Evesham having notched up yet another FIRST PRIZE for 2004 and in addition our Euphonium player Richard Ward won the best soloist. We`ve done the triple – this is getting better! We are looking forward to showing off all the silverware to our Patrons at our Saturday evening concert.

My message now to the players is, we are all enjoying the results of our hard work - WE WILL APPROACH 2005 AND FIRST SECTION WITH THE SAME COMMITMENT.

HATHERN BAND
MIDLANDS AREA AND NATIONAL
SECOND SECTION CHAMPIONS 2004

DON`T LOWER YOUR STANDARDS!

DYNAMICS – DON`T PLAY IN THE `COMFORT ZONE` AND KEEP WORKING ON YOUR OWN DYNAMICS

TUNING - LISTEN TO EACH OTHER AND ADJUST ACCORDINGLY, REMEMBER SLIDES CAN`T HELP INTONATION

SIT TIGHT - BE AWARE OF WHAT IS GOING ON AROUND YOU & PLAY AS A TEAM

PLAY TOGETHER – ALWAYS SUB-DIVIDE AND ALWAYS WATCH THE STICK

BREATHING - BREATH TOGETHER AND YOU WILL START TOGETHER

CONFIDENCE - ON FORM PLAYERS MAKE CONFIDENT PLAYERS – REMEMBER THE MORE YOU DO AT HOME THE BETTER PREPARED YOU ARE

MUSIC – TREAT EVERY PIECE OF MUSIC AS A TEST PIECE

David Newman - MUSICAL DIRECTOR
The Hathern Band, 2nd Section National Champions

Daves Diary - April 2004

Could I have asked for a better start to the year from the Band – probably not! We gave an excellent account of ourselves at our annual Concert in aid of LOROS in early January. I now rely on the Band wanting to do well at this event to get themselves back `in some sort of shape` after the Christmas festivities and so far they have not let me down.

A run out at Derby in February on Kaleidoscope by Phillip Sparke, the Area test piece, was in my opinion a good stepping-stone for the Area Contest.

The Band worked very hard leading up to the Area and luckily I was able to secure the services of the very talented Michael Fowles for additional work in preparation for the day. What a day – the Midlands Second Section Area Champions with an invitation in September to the National Finals in Harrogate are, HATHERN BAND. Those words were certainly music to my ears and we’ve finally got the banner for the Bandroom wall! The work paid off and we will fly the flag for Leicestershire in September.

The hard work must now continue – we have a very full diary of engagements for this year including playing at Derby Cathedral in May and a Concert with cornet virtuoso Phillip McCann in June. The National Finals test piece will be announced on the 1st June and this will certainly be a test for both myself and the players as work will start immediately on this piece, Concerts will still have to be performed and maybe players might just want a summer holiday! Towards the end of the year I would like the Band to make another CD in celebration of what so far has been an excellent year musically.

For those players who have not noticed my 7 commandments on the Bandroom wall – remember these points and we will be as 4Bars Rest commented, a Band on the way up.

HATHERN BAND

MIDLAND AREA SECOND SECTION CHAMPIONS 2004