A stand-out solo performance by an Aston-by-Stone oboist helped steer his band to a regional platinum award and a ticket to the final of one of Britain’s biggest music competitions.
Fifteen-year-old Charlie Dyble struck the right note with judges for his interpretation of ‘In a Gentle Rain’, by Robert W. Smith, in a heat of the National Concert Band Festival (NCBF) in Northamptonshire.
Billed as the largest event in the country for jazz musicians and wind bands, the contest attracts more than a thousand players, with each regional qualifier featuring musicians from several counties.
Charlie was one of 35 members of Stafford Grammar School’s concert and big bands, which delivered pitch-perfect performances to capture the highest plaudits from NCBF judges. Their success was mirrored by the Staffordshire Community Wind Orchestra, who will join the two SGS bands in Manchester for the national final.
Lines of poetry linked the school concert band’s weather-themed five-piece programme, including Charlie’s oboe solo, which captured the Allianz Musical Insurance award for outstanding performance.
“The standard was high, and across all the different sections, there were some great players, so I was quite surprised to win a prize,” said Charlie, who is principal oboe for the symphony orchestra and symphonic wind orchestra at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Junior Department. Charlie is also a member of the National Schools’ Symphony Orchestra.
The Aston-by-Stone teenager, who is working towards a diploma in oboe and piano and a Grade Eight in cello, later joined fellow pupils in the big band for a musical history of jazz from the early 1900s Dixieland style and 1940s’ swing through to present-day fusion, which included a George Gershwin trumpet solo by 18-year-old Josie Lamplough.
The young musicians, aged between 12 and 18, and the adult community orchestra hope to remain on course to wow adjudicators in their encore at the Royal Northern College of Music in April.
“There is a weight of expectation on our shoulders as we’ve won platinum awards in the past, but there is no guarantee we’ll do it again, so we always have to give our very best every time we go out there.
“When sixth form players leave, of course it’s a major loss, but there is the reassurance that we have some very talented prep school and year seven pupils coming through, and it’s always like a breath of fresh air when they join the bands,” added Charlie.
