Final-year student appointed Composer-in-Residence for Desford Colliery Band
October 2008
It has just been announced that final-year music student Tom Davoren has been appointed Composer-in-Residence for the renowned Desford Colliery Band, whose awards include winning the National, European and World Championships. Tom's Phoenix Rising (2008) was premiered by the Desford Colliery Band on 16 June 2008 at the National Championship Gala Concert in London. The piece was such a huge success, with members of the band and audience alike, that the Desford Colliery Band offered Tom this accolade.
Tom's brief is "to revitalise the band's library, concert and contest performances with a mix of new and exciting arrangements and compositions that not only prove popular with audiences and performers but challenge the perception of the modern brass band". The first proof of this new collaboration will be in the music which he is providing for the band's appearance at 'Brass in Concert' on 15 November at The Sage, Gateshead. The details are still "under wraps".
Tom is thrilled at the prospect of his new post: "I have free rein to try and discover something of a new sound world for the band, and as you can imagine I am incredibly excited by this!".
See also the news story Cardiff music students on BBC Radios 2 and 3.