Alan began playing at school in Glasgow in 1971, where he was Principal Horn with Glasgow Schools Brass Band for 3 years, before changing to Euphonium.

Alan joined the Royal Air Force in 1979 as an engineer, and during his RAF career played Euphonium with various bands throughout the UK and in Germany, from Championship to 3rd section. He was actively involved with the amateur organisation of music in the RAF, playing with several Voluntary Bands, and was the Secretary of the RAF Voluntary Band Association.

In recent years Alan has conducted several lower section bands and wind bands, with some contest success, as well as maintaining his playing with various bands, most recently City Of Oxford Silver Band, who he also conducted at many public engagements, and directed the band in a TV appearance in an episode of "Midsomer Murders" starring John Nettles.

Alan has just completed the BA (Hons) Band Studies course at Accrington & Rossendale College, studying conducting with Richard Evans and Arthur Butterworth, composition and arranging with Darrol Barry, and performance with Bill Millar and Steven Booth.

Alan is a member of the National Association of Brass Band Conductors.

 

Bill's early musical experiences were with the Salvation Army in Poole where he reached the position of Principal Cornet, Assistant Conductor of the band and Choir Leader. It was here during his teenage years that he began writing music for Pop Groups, Choirs and Bands within the Salvation Army.

In 1993 he joined Bournemouth Concert Brass, where he still plays Eb Bass and often conducts the band in the absence of the resident conductors.

A number of his arrangements have been used in concerts and entertainment contests and in 2001 Bill was commissioned to write a march to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Barclays Brass Band. An arrangement of the hymn tune Hyfrydol appears on a CD by the Poole Borough Band.

 

Claire was introduced to music through her local Salvation Army band in Stockport. At the age of eight she learned to play the cornet and over the years progressed to the baritone.

Claire became a student at Salford University on the Band Musicianship degree course in 1993. In her final year she studied arranging for brass band under the guidance of Peter Graham, and conducting under the leadership of Roy Newsome and David King.

Claire now works as a peripatetic brass teacher in Northwich, Cheshire. She has also been the Musical Director of Eccles Borough Band in Manchester for the last five years, a position that she has recently relinquished to concentrate on her teaching and arranging.

 

Des was introduced to Brass Bands whilst at Brackley Secondary School and found himself Solo Horn of the school band by the age of thirteen, following brief spells on the cornet and baritone.

He penned his first two arrangements for the school band at the age of sixteen, an ensemble version of a Mozart Horn Concerto and a ful band arrangement of a selection of German Folk Tunes.

The formation of Brackley & District Band in 1973 provided him with the opportunity to gain further experience through the arrangement of current popular tunes of the day and folk tunes which, until now have remained unpublished.

Des continues to play and arrange music and hopes that a wider spectrum of bands will enjoy playing his music.

 

Ian has a long history of writing for Brass Bands which includes a specially commissioned arrangement for Desford Colliery Band which was used on one of their tours of Germany. He has also written for Strings and Full Orchestra.

Ian has conducted and directed performances in his native Leicester on many occasions, and as founder and MD for the Wyvern Ensemble has conducted his own and other composers works for a variety of combinations.

Jeff was born and brought up in the brass band tradition of South Wales. For many years he played Euphonium in a championship section band and is currently Principal Tuba in the band of the Royal Welsh Regiment.

He has a varied background outside brass bands. With a MSc in geochemistry, he initially worked as a chemist in the water authority. He then changed career, moving into careers guidance work and is now employed as a manager in a careers company.

Jeff gets as much pleasure from composing as playing and he has written many original works which have been performed in public and featured on CD's by the band of the Royal Welsh Regiment. He wrote the cornet solo "Julie" (catalogue number 21104) to celebrate his wife's birthday.

In September 2001 Jim Alder celebrated his 96th birthday with a bandroom concert given by the City Of Oxford Silver Band in his honour. Jim has been associated with the band for more years than he cares to remember going back to the days when the band was called the Headington Band.

Earlier that year Jim was contacted by Nigel Hall to ask him to submit some of his pieces for publication.

Jim Alder is probably Oxfordshire's best kept secret, a magnificent composer of marches (almost every band in the Oxfordshire Brass Band Association has copies of Jim's marches in their library) but also ensemble  and major works. At present MMI Music publishes seven of Jim's marches, two quartets, one concert item (Miranda - composed for an actress friend of his and played at the bandroom concert with both composer and subject present) and two major work ("Anzio", based on Jim's wartime experiences in Italy (featured on the Jazzcat CD and a tone poem called "Julius Caesar").

 Jim Alder passed away at the beginning of 2004.

John was born in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire where at the age of ten he started to learn the cornet with the local town band, graduating to the principal cornet position.

Upon completing his education John joined the Royal Air Force as a musician, where he gained promotion to Chief Technician "Brass Leader" before he left the service after 23 years. During his time in the RAF he was a finalist in no less that five occasions in the competition to find the best music arranger in the RAF.

John has for many years been associated with Weston-super-Mare Brass, a 1st Section band, both as its Musical Director and latterly as "bumper-up" cornet.

John now works as an administrative manager and continues to arrange and conduct on a freelance basis.

 

Mikael Boo was born in Sweden in 1967 and lives in Huskvarna. His day job is in financial auditing and he has a BSc in Business Administration and Economics.

Mikael is the conductor of the Huskvarna Brass Band and occasionally plays Baritone with the band. Mikael enjoys composing and arranging for many different mediums but especially for Brass Bands, for whom he has composed many original works over the years.

Currently MMI Music publishes Mikaels "Celebration March (Festmarsch)" which was composed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Huskvarna Brass Band in May 2000 and an arrangement of Erik Fröberg's march "Victory" (featured on the Jazzcat CD). We hope to be publishing many more of Mikael's works in the near future.

Nigel was born in 1962 and his musical education began at the age of eleven with piano lessons followed two years later by the Euphonium at school. Nigel joined Brackley & District Band soon after and remained a member for four years before leaving to join Yarnton Band near Oxford.

After two years Nigel's interests took him away from Brass Bands (mobile discos, Hospital and Local Radio) before rejoining the band movement (again with Brackley band) in 1995. This in turn rekindled his interest in composing and arranging culminating in 1998 submitting pieces to Headline Music Productions for publication.

Nigel also turned to conducting, taking the helm at Chipping Norton Silver, Chalgrove, Avonbank (Evesham),  Amersham Band, Malvern Hills District Band, Pangbourne Silver Band and is currently with Bletchington Silver Band.

With over twenty pieces published by Headline, Nigel's pinnacle (so far!) was the selection of his arrangement of Shostakovitch's March from Jazz Suite No 2 (now available from MMI Music) as the set test for the 2nd/3rd Section at the Milton Keynes Festival of Brass in 2000.

In February 2001 Nigel decided to publish his own music and set up MMI Music (MMI is 2001 in roman numerals!) and has since been joined by the many composers and arrangers you see on this site.

In 2005 Nigel added contest adjudication to his list of achievements and this is something that he wishes to continue in the future.

Ron is a self taught musician who was born in 1942 into a Salvation Army background. In his teens he was appointed the band leader of the junior band but soon became Bandmaster of the senior band, a position he held for a number of years. In 1965 he was awarded a diploma for the successful completion of a Band Training Course. During this time he also became the Musical Director of the Thames Valley Police Band.

In the early 1980's Ron was asked to conduct the Hook Norton Brass Band, he did this with the intention of raising the standard of playing. The band performed for the first time at the Oxfordshire & District Brass Band Association contest, winning 1st place for the first time in 100 years.

Ron left Hook Norton in the 1990's and returned to playing with Brackley & District, first on Eb Bass then on Bass Trombone. After a number of years away from both playing and conducting, Ron has returned to banding by again accepting the offer to conduct Hook Norton Band.

Ron has always wanted to compose music, and although he has never received any formal training, has composed and arranged music since his teens.

Nigel was born in 1954 and took up the Tuba at the age of 13, producing his first arrangements for brass band one year later. Having spent three years at the Royal College of Music, studying tuba with John Jenkins, and piano with Barbara Hill, he returned to the south east, become well known as a freelance tuba player and conductor in both the brass band and orchestral worlds.

 Ever in demand, both from the playing and conducting side, he is also renowned for the ability to produce arrangements at speed, for all types of ensembles, from duets to symphony orchestra.

 At present, he is Musical Director of Uckfield Concert Brass, as well as playing with LGB Brass.

 

Mike became interested in music at the age of 11 and quickly became Eb bass soloist with his school band. While at school, he joined the then Eagley Mills band with whom he played for many years.

Having obtained a BA in maths and music and a PGCE he became a music teacher at a secondary school in Wigan, where he has stayed for 19 years. He has recently moved back to Eagley Band, where he is Solo Eb Bass and Associate conductor.

He has composed music for brass band, orchestra, school band, voice and a number of brass and other ensembles. Mike first became published through Headline Music, but has now joined the ranks at MMI Music.

Gerry McColl was born in Glasgow in 1937. He was in the RAF, as a conscript, from ’55 to ’57, and learned Trombone in a station (voluntary) band.

After demob, the music bug got him and he joined an Army band in 1959, as a trombonist/guitarist. In 1989 he left the Army as Director of Music of the Band of the Life Guards, in the rank of Major.

He has been writing for all sorts of ensembles for years, with a particular liking for Big Bands. He has recently been appointed Conductor of the Royal British Legion Scotland Central band.

Keith Terrett learnt the Cornet from the age of eleven, and played with the Topsham & Lymstone Silver Band.  At the tender age of 15, Keith enlisted into the British Army as a Bandsman training at the Junior Leaders Band School in Bovington Camp, Dorset.  After his training Keith was the Principal Cornettist with the Band of the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars, stationed in West Germany.  Keith's Trumpet teacher was the legendary Ian Mackintosh, former Principal of the BBC SO.

After qualifying as a Bandmaster at Kneller Hall,  Keith left the Army in 1990, to commence his instrumental teaching and conducting  career in the British West Indies.  Other posts have included lecturing at the University in Papua New Guinea, Director of Music of  the world famous Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary Band in Port Moresby, a music teacher in Kuwait, and a brass, woodwind, percussion and band conductor in Norway.  Keith will take up a new post as Brass Instructor in the Rhondda Valley from September 2006.

His prolific output includes original works for full Symphony Orchestra, to music for Brass, Wind, and various ensembles,  to music for Recorders, Steel Pans, Harmonica and even the Accordion!

Keith is an internationally published composer & arranger, with a diverse collection of music published in Scandinavia, Holland, the USA and the UK.

Professor Simon Haslett has been involved with Brass Banding since he was 14 in South Wales, at first playing Baritone before moving on to the Trombone for the past 25 years. 

He went on to obtain a Subsidiary Degree in Music from the University of Keele.

Whilst still playing for his successful local Brass Band he co-formed a quartet in 2005, and started composing and arranging original material for them. His works are strongly influenced by early and traditional music.