The Concert with Steve Sykes
The evening of the 16th of May saw Cranbrook Town Band perform with World class Bass player Steve Sykes. The hectic day’s rehearsal and many previous Thursday nights dedication to the evenings programme made for a wonderful concert and a truly memorable night. The first half opened with the Olympic Fanfare and Theme and continued with “A Kentish Suite”, a piece specifically written for the band by local musician Kevin Spencer.
The first two of Steve’s Solo pieces featured some fantastic playing and held the whole audience in rapt attention. The second half featured more of the same and Steve played his last solo “Feelings” with even more passion and delicacy than anyone thought possible on such a large instrument. The evening finished to rapturous applause for Riverdance and our guest, undoubtedly the highlight of the year for the band.
Our thanks go to Steve for a truly magical performance.
About the St. Georges Trust
St Georges Community Children’s Project is a full Day-care Centre, offering Nursery, Playgroup, After School Club and Holiday Play scheme facilities to Children from the ages of 1 -11 years for 50 weeks of the year.The Nursery has been running for 15 years and provides a safe, happy and stimulating play environment. The full fee places at the centre only cover the costs of actually running the childcare services. To fund the subsidy of the reduced fees offered to low-income families, the project’s staff and volunteers organise many fund raining events throughout the year.
Steve Sykes
“The most revolutionary tuba player the brass world has ever known” is how the music press described Steve Sykes recently”Renowned for his remarkable technique, his lucid ‘bel canto’ tone and a breath taking five and a half octave range.
His musical roots are firmly based in Yorkshire brass bands beginning with Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band. In 1978 he accepted an invitation by Elgar Howarth to join the famous Grimethorpe Colliery Band as Principal Tuba and Soloist. With Grimethorpe he performed as soloist throughout Europe and Australia. During this period Steve was awarded the prestigious title of ‘Granada Television Soloist of the Year’.
Because of an ever-increasing demand for Steve’s talent both as soloist, conductor and clinician, he now works as a freelance musician appearing in the USA, Canada, Europe and Scandinavia and is a firm favourite with players and audiences alike.Steve has been directing Championship section bands since the age of 22 – among his professional conducting appointments have been famous ensembles such as CWS (Co-op) (Glasgow) and SunLife (Stanshawe). He has directed bands at the National Finals, British Open, All England Masters and European Championships and, of course, has many commercial recordings and national radio broadcasts to his name.
Steve works with many bands throughout the year, these include BAYV (Cory), Leyland, Fairey, Tredegar, BTM etc.
He has presented British regional conducting workshops on behalf of the National Association of Brass Band Conductors and conducting seminars on behalf of the North American Brass Band Association in Washington DC.