Each week more than three hundred woodwind students attend the Music Centre to participate in one of the relevant groups. The majority of these students attend one of the four wind bands, which rehearse on Monday evenings and which are graded according to ability. Each group usually takes part in at least three public performances a year, details of which are published in the Centre’s Calendar of Events. Most new members of the Music Centre are invited to attend the Elementary Wind Band, which consists of wind instruments alone. This group consists mainly of flutes and clarinets, but we also welcome oboists, saxophonists and bassoonists.
At the end of each academic year suitable band members are invited to attend an audition at the Music Centre. This audition, together with information supplied by their teacher and group conductor, and through conversation with the student, is used to decide whether they are ready for promotion to either a more advanced part within their own group or on to the next band within the structure. For students moving on from the Elementary Wind Group this would usually mean a move to the Training Wind Band. This group consists of the same woodwind instrumentation as the Elementary Wind Band but now has the addition of brass and percussion. When students are ready to move from this group they usually move on to the Intermediate Wind Band, although some students may show an interest in joining one of the more specialised groups, such as the Swing Band, the Clarinet Ensemble, the Saxophone Group, the Early Music Group or the Double Reed Ensemble.
The most advanced students will eventually be offered a place in one of the Music Centre’s senior groups. For the wind band students this would mean joining the Youth Wind Band. This group has nationally recognised status and as recently as 2000 was successful in winning the silver award at the Boosey and Hawkes National Concert Band Festival. In recent years the Band has toured the USA, the Czech Republic and Belgium. They are also regularly selected to take part in the finals of the National Festival of Music For Youth at the South Bank in London and are no strangers to local venues such as the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester and Manchester United’s Old Trafford home. Some students may be selected to join the Youth Jazz Group. This is a particularly exciting and vibrant group that is used to appearing at local events and festivals, such as the Marsden Jazz Festival, as well as having been successful at a national level.
In addition to playing in a wind band, the Wind Department offers students the opportunity to participate in the Music Centre orchestras, which rehearse on Tuesday evenings. The first group to include Woodwind instruments is the Intermediate Orchestra. This group works in a modular way, whereby the wind players have their own small performing group, the Intermediate Wind Ensemble, but also come together with strings, brass and percussion to gain valuable orchestral experience. This mirrors the example set by the the Music Service’s Orchestral flagship, the Oldham Youth Orchestra, which incorporates the Youth Wind Ensemble The Youth Orchestra has enjoyed great success over recent years, being involved with the Manchester Camerata in various projects, performing at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on many occasions and in 1998 being selected to perform at the Schools’ Proms in the Royal Albert Hall. In July 2001 the Orchestra was invited to take part in the gala concert of the extremely prestigious 2001 Ninth Oldham Walton Festival. The Youth Orchestra is currently part way through a three year association with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.
As can be seen from the above the Orchestral Wind Department is an extremely active and exciting one. It offers all its students the opportunity to play a wide range of music from a number of different genres, to the highest possible standards, together with other young people who share a common interest.