The Cornwall Youth Brass Band will be holding their Annual Christmas Residential Course in Truro from the 27th to the 30th December. This year their Guest Conductor is Ian Porthouse, at present Musical Director of The Tredegar Band in South Wales. Last year he conducted The European Youth Band which included three musicians from the Cornwall Youth Brass Band. He is Head of Brass Band Studies at Birmingham Conservatoire where he began his own musical training before going on to be a highly regarded Principal Cornet player with Bands such as Leyland Vehicles, Desford Colliery and Black Dyke. He will be joined by Guest Soloist, percussionist David Danford, who is a member of the percussion team from The Cory Band, the present European and Brass in Concert Champions.

A new work by talented Cornish composer Simon Dobson, which reflects on the loss of the Penlee Lifeboat off the Cornish coast in 1981, will be premiered at the Gala Concert at the end of the Course. It has been commissioned by the Band using a legacy from former Bodmin Bandsman, Michael Pickett. The music, entitled Penlee, has already won admiration from the brass band world and will be also played by The Leyland Band at the prestigious Festival of Brass at the Royal Northern College of Music early next year.

Simon, who won European Young Composer of the Year in 2002, said he has always wanted to write a piece of music in tribute to the lifeboat and ship's crews who lost their lives in 1981. His wish came true when the Cornwall Youth Brass Band, of which he is a former member and now a Tutor, came to him with the commission. On the score Simon has written, "To some the tragic story of the Penlee lifeboat, the Solomon Browne, needs no introduction and to some the pain felt is still very much a reality. I was brought up in full knowledge of the story having been born just a few weeks before the fateful night. This commission allows me the opportunity to pay musical homage to the bravery of the souls involved. Penlee is the result of my feelings regarding the event and is dedicated to all those who lost their lives in Cornwall's treacherous waters, including the volunteers on the lifeboat, and the crew and passengers of the Union Star." During the piece Simon has written a part for a Ships Bell and for the first performance by The Cornwall Youth Brass Band the RNLI have generously loaned the Band the Bell from the present Penlee Lifeboat. They also showed a group of the young musicians over the Lifeboat.

The picture shows Musicians of The Cornwall Youth Brass Band, taken aboard The Penlee Lifeboat in Newlyn Harbour, Cornwall. Left to right, Zoe Teague, Lowenna Taylor, Patrick Harvey, the Lifeboat Coxswain, Sarah Matthews, Composer Simon Dobson, James Telling, Ben King, Joanna Powell. Photograph RNLI/ Roger Pope.

Tickets for the Concert are available in advance from 01752 843919.