Stape Silver Band earns highest honour in its history (From Gazette & Herald)

Stape Silver Band earns highest honour in its history

THE legendary Stape Silver Band has achieved its highest accolade in its 119-year history.

For the band is to take part in the British Federation of Brass Bands competition at Dundee in September, after being runner-up in the north of England area championships at Darlington.

But amid the elation of representing its section at the national event, the band is facing the daunting task of raising £3,000 to fund its trip.

Bandmaster Michael Breckon said the band, which was recently promoted from the fourth to third section in the league tables of national brass bands, now had ten youngsters among its 28 players.

"We are now organising fundraising events, such as coffee mornings and concerts to raise the funds to take everyone to Dundee," he said.

Ironically, while it still retains the original name, there is no one in the band today who lives in Stape. Many come from the Pickering area but others travel from Malton, Norton and York.

It is currently practising for a concert in Filey on May 8, when it will be playing musical items featured in television advertisements.

The band practices twice a week at its headquarters in Outgang Road, Pickering, rehearsing for public appearances and concerts which have seen it playing in Holland, and a trip to the Belgian cities of Ghent, Brugge and Antwerp is now planned.

To win its place in the national finals, the band played Northern Landscapes by Peter Graham, which won them the Boosey and Hawkes Trophy, along with the Dundee invitation.

Meanwhile, the band's youngest member, eight-year-old Bethany Breckon, was an award-winner at the recent Eskdale Festival of Performing Arts at Whitby Spa. The young cornet player learned her skills from her tenor horn-playing mum, Helen, and bandmaster father, Michael, who also taught her sister Lauren, 11, to play the cornet.

Bethany was first in her age group for brass solo and novice section. Other members of the 12-strong Stape Silver Junior Band also won awards: Becky Shepherd (horn) and her elder sister Alice (cornet) were also among the winners, along with Georgina Shepherd, who won the year 11 brass solo section on the euphonium, while Kristina Strickland and Lisa Copland, both cornet players, were placed joint third. Lauren Breckon and Heather Percy, also cornet players, took part in the year nine section.

Updated: 13:57 Wednesday, April 16, 2003