Tredegar Town Band

The Tredegar Town Band is one of Britain's top brass bands, with a history stretching back to the middle 19th century. The band is a perennial contender in major British band competitions. The Tredegar Town Band plays an important part in the cultural life of Tredegar in southeast Wales, a town where the effects of the Industrial Revolution were felt early. The band came together to celebrate the opening of a mill, but it did not take on official status until 1876, when public donations were raised to formalize its existence. Under director Eli Shaw, the band had some regional successes in performances and competitions, but it was not until after World War II, under the direction of Cornelius Buckley and then John Childs, that the group's impact became national in scope. The group was Second Section Champion Band of Great Britain in 1973, the Champion Band of Wales in 1974, and took the Grand Shield in 1976. Champion Band of Wales has become a familiar designation for the Tredegar Town Band; by the late 2010s, the group had won that honor eight more times, as well as Welsh Regional Champion 11 times. The band was heard on the BBC's More Reflections for Brass album in 1998 and made its recording debut in 2001 with the album Brass on Broadway. A new phase in the prize-winning ways of the Tredegar Town Band came with the appointment of cornetist Ian Porthouse as musical director; he continues to hold the position as of the early 2020s. Under Porthouse, the band won the British Open twice, in 2010 and 2013; in the latter year, the group was named the second-best brass band in the world by the website 4barsrest. (In 2022, the band was still in the top five.) Keen to pass the band tradition on to future generations, the Tredegar Town Band has spearheaded a new youth development initiative, assisted by the Scottish Brass Band Association. In 2016, the band released the album War Memorials: Music for Brass Band on the NMC label, and in 2022, it was heard on a pair of recordings on the Albion label, each devoted to brass music by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
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