Youth Band Biography
The Triangle Youth Brass Band, located in Raleigh, North Carolina,
was formed in 1997 as an expansion of the Triangle Brass Band's
educational endeavors. The organization consists of two bands, the
Triangle Youth Brass Band and the Triangle Youth Brass Ensemble,
and nearly 80 of the Triangle’s most talented young musicians
participate. The TYBB’s mission is to provide an opportunity
for the finest area high school brass and percussion players to
supplement their wind band experience by performing in a British-style
brass band and to raise the level of brass playing in the area.
The
Triangle Youth Brass Band maintains a strict instrumentation based
on the British brass band tradition. B-flat and E-flat cornets,
E-flat tenor horns, and B-flat baritones are used in addition to
trombone, bass trombone, tuba, and percussion. In addition to contemporary
pieces written for brass band, the group’s repertoire includes
orchestral and band transcriptions, and students also perform chamber
music in small quartets or quintets. For both ensembles, membership
is by recommendation and audition, and the season lasts from November
to May each year. Both bands perform at the Progress Energy Center
for the Performing Arts’ Meymandi Concert Hall in Raleigh.
The TYBB program also sponsors clinics and masterclasses with guest
artists and conductors and hosts Brassmas, a December event in which
middle- and high-school students from all over the Triangle area
perform an outdoor concert of holiday music.
In its first season, TYBB gave only one performance, but the program
grew swiftly; Matt Edwards, Stephen Lytle, John Enloe, and Randy
Guptill conducted that year. Guptill took over as director for the
1998-1999 school year and served until its current director, Tony
Granados, came aboard in January 2001. In 2007, the program expanded
with the formation of an additional band, the Triangle Youth Brass
Ensemble. Although this ensemble does not adhere to the TYBB’s
strict British instrumentation, the slightly larger TYBE is patterned
after the British style. Repertoire is challenging yet appropriate
to the skill level of these young musicians. This additional ensemble
provides more students with the opportunity to develop their skills
as musicians in a youth brass band program that has become the premiere
organization of its kind in North America
As the program has flourished, so has its reputation. The Triangle
Youth Brass Band often travels and performs outside the Triangle
area of North Carolina. Recent tours have taken the band to the
North American Brass Band Association Championships, where the band
earned First Place Honors in the Youth Division in 2001, 2002, 2004,
2006 and 2007. The TYBB were featured performers at the Great American
Brass Band Festival in 2003, visited Atlanta to perform with the
Georgia Brass Band in 2005, toured Connecticut and performed with
the US Coast Guard Band in 2008, and performed for the City of Greensboro’s
Independence Day fireworks celebration in 2006 and 2008. The newly
formed Brass Ensemble is making its mark as well, attending the
NABBA Championships in the new Youth Open division and winning 1st
place in 2007 and 2008.
A cornerstone of the TYBB program is its commitment to bringing
first-rate musicians from all over the world to the Triangle. Guest
soloists and clinicians have included:
• Keith Wilkinson (Brass Band of the Western Reserve)
• Terry Everson (Professor of Trumpet, Boston University)
• Michael Kris (Professor of Low Brass, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill)
• Mark Clodfelter (Professor of Trumpet, University of Kentucky)
• Ray Farr (conductor/composer)
• James E. Jackson III (euphonium, U.S. Coast Guard Band)
• Jens Lindemann (Professor of Trumpet, UCLA and former trumpet,
Canadian Brass)
• Steve Sykes (tuba soloist, conductor, and adjudicator)
• Chris Martin (Principal Trumpet, Chicago Symphony)
• Colin Williams (Principal Trombone, Atlanta Symphony)
• Brian Meixner (Euphonium, River City Brass Band)
• Demondrae Thurman (Professor of Euphonium, University of
Alabama and Sotto Voce Quartet)
• Tom Bratten (U.S. Army Band)
• Vince DiMartino (Professor of Trumpet, Centre College, Danville,
Kentucky)
• Don Eagle (NC Symphony)
• Dennis DeJong (Carolina Brass)
• Douglas Yeo (Bass Trombone, Boston Symphony Orchestra)
• Kevin Geraldi (Conductor, University of North Carolina at
Greensboro)
• Mark Norman (Conductor, North Carolina School for the Arts)
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Current News
Next Concert:
Join the TBB for a FREE Patriotic Concert Saturday June 27th, 7:00 PM at Bond Park (Sertoma Amphitheater) in Cary, NC. WRAL's Greg Fishel will help the band perform a tribute to JFK. TBB Euphonium player John Jones will serve as soloist.
Join the TBB for a FREE Concert Saturday July 18th, 7:00 PM at Bond Park (Sertoma Amphitheater) in Cary, NC. Overtures and Others will feature music by Wagner and von Suppe, and TBB Euphonium plyer Buddy West willserve as soloist.
Becoming a friend of the band just got easier!
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