YOUNG players were the stars of the show as a prestigious brass band in St Newlyn East provided a musical treat for all ages.

St Newlyn East Band presented a Brass and Voice concert at the St Newlyn East Village Hall on Saturday, July 20, which included performances by band members as young as six years old.

Residents of the village and beyond were treated to the musical talents of their village brass band, as well as the singing of the C-Birds Singers and Hayle choir Local Vocalz, compered by Keith Southwell from Lappa Valley, who kept the evening running smoothly with his jokes, love of music and chats to the audience.

The band played a variety of pieces, getting the audience clapping along and sharing their musical prowess. They also showcased a number of soloists, including Aaron Williams on bass who played a lovely rendition of ‘Forty Fathoms’, Alex Burns on Euphonium who wowed with ‘To A Wild Rose’, Ollie Williams on Cornet who played ‘Annies Song’ and nine-year-old Lucy Ford, who was making her debut with the band at the concert and played ‘Hine e Hine’.

Lucy is one of the many talented young players that have started to play with the band over the past year. She showed off her skills during her solo making her parents, cornet players Josephine and Nathan Ford, proud.

Lucy was not the only young player making their debut with the band at the concert. Six-year-old Scarlett Walton, the bands youngest player, performed on the horn, as well as her cousins, sisters Grace and Sarah Whitford, all sitting alongside their other cousins Matthew, Joseph and Christopher Ford.

A spokesperson for St Newlyn East Band said: “These young players all played fantastically at their first concert, enjoying sitting with the rest of the band and they will go far in their musical journey as they continue to learn with musical director Barry Skinner and fellow music teacher and longtime band member Marian Prior.”

Speaking of the night, Barry said how proud he was of the young players and asked them all to stand and receive applause from the audience to welcome them into the band properly! Barry said to the band: “I am very proud to be your musical director, thank you to you all for playing so well, especially the young ones, we had a great evening together, let’s make it the first of many!”

Theresa Whitford, mum to two of the newer, younger players Grace and Sarah, said: “Thank you to everyone’s hard work in producing such a lovely evening, including those behind the scenes, we all had a lovely time, and the children will have such lovely memories”.

Monica Walton, mum to six-year-old Scarlett also added: “It was wonderful, so much hard work was put in and it was really enjoyable.”

The C-Birds singers also delighted the village singing Songs of the Sea. With members from the village and surrounding areas, the group comprise of a number of lovely ladies who sing acapella with no conductor or musical prowess and provide wonderful entertainment with their tunes. These tunes included ‘Dolly Pentreath’, ‘Cornwall my Home’ and ‘There’s nothing like Pilchards for saving the soul’.

Local Vocalz were the other choir who sung on the night, hailing from Hayle, they are directed by Peter Luing and they sang a variety of tunes from their repertoire including ‘Skyfall’, ‘Mr Blue Sky’ and ‘You’ve got a Friend in me’, getting the audiences feet tapping and singing along.

Longtime band supporter and mum to bass player Aaron, Janice, said: “What a fantastic evening, there’s a lot of talented people in the band, from the very young to the not quite so young and I feel privileged to be part of it.”

As the evening drew to a close, Keith thanked everyone for coming along to support the band and the choirs and to hear the wonderful musical talents.

The night itself then ended on a spectacular high with the band, choirs and entire audience at the village hall joining together to sing the Cornish national anthem ‘Trelawney’. A band spokesman said: “It was a wonderful way to end a wonderful, musical evening.”