What’s Next Wind Band

WHAT’S NEXT WIND BAND

A new musical experience for ages 18–35

Why This Event?

What’s Next Wind Band is a brand‑new, fun and social music‑making experience designed exclusively for wind, brass and percussion players aged 18–35. Whether you’re in musical limbo, missing your old band days, wanting to meet new people, or simply looking for a creative mental‑health boost — this day is for you.

You’ll enjoy a day of high‑quality rehearsals with a relaxed performance at the end of the day, and plenty of opportunities to socialise with other musicians. It’s a chance to reconnect with your instrument, rediscover your love of ensemble playing, and build a new musical community.

Who Should Attend?

Wind, brass and percussion players grade 5+* aged 18–35
Those who played at school or university and want to get back into it
Young professionals seeking a creative outlet
Local students wanting to meet other musicians and find a musical community for post-graduation
Anyone looking to build confidence and community through music

*(please contact us if you would like to attend but are unsure if this course is at your level)

When & Where?

Saturday 13th February 2027

10am – arrival
10:30am – 4:30pm rehearsals, including morning, afternoon and lunchbreak
5pm – informal performance

Post performance: a trip to the pub afterwards for anyone who wants to continue the fun!

Venue: Redeemer Church, Old Town Hall, 29 Foster Avenue, Beeston NG9 1AE

The event will be held in Beeston, making it easy to travel from nearby cities such as Nottingham, Derby or Sheffield.

Getting there:
By Car: Car parks are available on Foster Avenue and Devonshire Avenue, pay and display.
By Public Transport: Beeston tram stop is the closet stop to the Redeemer Church. This is a 5 minute walk away.
Beeston is easily reachable via trains into Beeston Station, the church is then a 16 minute walk away.

Repertoire

Repertoire includes:

To be announced!

The course will be conducted by Gareth Widdowson whose full profile can be found on our Who’s Who webpage.

Pricing

The event costs £30 for the day, including a pizza lunch.

There will be a group discount of 10% at the time of booking for groups of 2 or more players booking together.

We don’t want anyone to be excluded from MfE activities because of their financial circumstances and there is a subsidised scheme available for any who needs it. Please contact admin@music-for-everyone.org if this is the case.

Our nearest tram stop is Beeston Centre, on line 3 (Hucknall – City Centre – Toton).

Buses that stop at Beeston Centre are:
– 36 (NCT)
– Indigo (TrentBarton)
– 18 (CT4N)

With the shops to your right, walk towards The Square and the raised platform. Turn left, towards ‘The Last Post’ pub and then right on to Foster Avenue before you reach it. Continue along Foster Avenue towards Roundhill School, past the residential houses and the Catholic church on your left to the last building on the left before the school, directly opposite Beeston Library. This is approximately a six-minute walk.

Concert: Sounds of the Season

East Midlands Youth String Orchestra
East Midlands Youth Band
Nottingham Youth Band
Nottingham Strictly Strings

Conductors: Claire Franklin, Tamaki Higashi, Erika Zeckser-Owen

Sunday 6th December 2026, 3:30pm

Christ Church, Chilwell, Beeston, NG9 4AS

Music for Everyone’s youth music groups present their end of term festive concert. Join them as they showcase their hard work and perform a fun and wide ranging programme of music from classical to film and tv favourites.

Tickets

Adult £9, Child/Student £4

Open Voices Sherwood: My Fair Lady

Come and see them in action on Friday 25th July at St Martins Church, Trevose Gardens, Sherwood, NG5 3FU.

Entry is free.

Tea and cakes at will be served at 11 and the performance begins at 11.20am.

We’d like to say a big thank you to the Rempstone Steam and Country Show for their donation to Open Voices Sherwood to support them with their production of My Fair Lady.

NFC Singing Workshop with Robert Hollingworth

Registration for this course is now closed.

Come and be part of an amazing choral experience and perform a dazzling concert. All participating singers become the Nottingham Festival Chorus for the day!

St Nic’s Church, Maid Marian Way, City Centre, Nottingham, NG1 6AE

10am – 5pm (Informal performance 4.30pm)

Workshop Leader: Robert Hollingworth

Accompanist: Angela Foan

Enjoy a day getting to know beautiful and intriguing music from the 16th century: not the ‘usual’ sacred fare but the most expressive and characterful secular pieces. From Italy, some quite perfect Monteverdi. From Spain, a cancion (five in a bar – best sung as when limping). From Germany – inspired by the Italians – a heart-rending lament. From France, a rather cool chanson (which, however, inspired a very funky dance). England offers a simple-looking madrigal but actually is so full of ideas, it needs calming down a bit.

A day with Robert Hollingworth is so much fun that you might not realise how much you’re learning. His breadth of skill and knowledge, mixed with off the wall humour and excellent anecdotes, is guaranteed to bring the music bouncing off the page and into glorious technicolour.

Ability to read music is essential, however, all music will be made available in advance. Links to music recordings will be given as well as recordings of the pronunciation for the non-English poems.

What is the Nottingham Festival Chorus?

Mixed choir of 100+ voices, no auditions
Expertly led, highly enjoyable workshops and concerts
Distance-learning packs provided

What experience do singers need?

The ability to read music and some previous singing experience is needed for this course.

Mixed choir of 100+ voices, no auditions
Expertly led, highly enjoyable rehearsal weekends
Distance-learning packs

Don’t miss out, book your place now!

Venue

The course and concert on Saturday 26th September will take place at St Nic’s in the city centre. Find out more about St Nic’s here: About — St Nic’s Nottingham

Workshop Leader

Photographer Matt Brodie

Robert Hollingworth

Robert founded I Fagiolini in 1986 and has since spent much of his life thinking about how audiences receive music, instead of just how performers want to deliver it. Aside from his work with I Fagiolini, he is a conductor, broadcaster, educator, editor and festival director. Robert has conducted orchestras including the English Concert, Academy of Ancient Music, BBC Concert Orchestra, Irish Baroque Orchestra and directed some of the world’s finest chamber choirs including Accentus, NDR Chor, RIAS Kammerchor (Berlin), Netherlands Chamber Choir, National Chamber Choir of Ireland, BBC Singers, Danish National Vocal Ensemble and Capella Cracoviensis. Robert is Artistic Director for Stour Music Festival and the new ‘Fairest Isle Festival’ on the Isle of Wight.

At the University of York, Robert directs two choirs and the UK’s only MA in Solo-Voice Ensemble Singing, now in its 13th year. He has written and presented programmes on BBC Radio 3 and more recently created over 30 episodes of the YouTube choral series SingTheScore as well as co-founding and presenting the UK’s top choral podcast series, Choral Chihuahua, with Eamonn Dougan and Nicholas Mulroy, now in its twelfth season. Both are made by Polyphonic Films (Greg Browning). Robert Hollingworth is managed worldwide by Percius.

Repertoire

Monteverdi – Sfogava con le stelle

Schein – Da Jakob vollendet hatte

Anchieta – Con amores mi madre

Tomkins – Weep no more, thou sorry boy

Sandrin – La volonte

Music Scores

We offer music collection points. Please choose an option when booking.

Provisional Timetable –

Saturday 26th September: St Nic’s Church

Registration: 9.45am

Singing sessions: 10am – 4.30pm

Informal performance: 4.30pm – 5pm

To include tea, coffee and lunch break and end with an informal concert.

Workshop Fee

The fee includes all music copies, the workshop experience and coffee or tea at the morning and afternoon breaks.

All – £30; Benefit Claimant/Student – £10.

We don’t want anyone to be excluded from MfE activities because of their financial circumstances and there is a subsidised scheme available for any who needs it. Please contact anne@music-for-everyone.org if this is the case.

How to enrol

Registration for this course is now closed.

MfE Membership

Join us as a member and become part of a unique community of music makers. Your membership will also help to sustain, strengthen and shape the future of MfE, enabling others to experience the joy of music too.

Membership benefits you will receive are:

Special membership rates for courses/workshops
Invitation and voting rights for the annual AGM
Priority early booking of tickets for all events including concerts

Annual Membership – £40 per year

N.B. If you play or sing with one of our regular groups i.e. Daytime Voices / Daytime Orchestras / Nottingham Chamber Singers you are already part of the family and will automatically receive these membership benefits as part of your termly subscription. You do not need to take out membership.

Click here to become a member

Meet the Composer: Open Workshop

Nottingham Chamber Singers 40th Anniversary Season

Sunday 11th May, 2pm – 4.30pm

Djanogly Rehearsal Hall
Department of Music
University of Nottingham
NG7 2RD

Have you ever wondered how a composer goes about writing a piece for choir and orchestra? Do they start with the melody, or go straight to the words? This is your unique opportunity to find out.

To celebrate their 40th Anniversary, the Nottingham Chamber Singers have commissioned a piece for choir and string orchestra from gifted Nottingham-born composer, Libby Croad. Libby write the splendid choral Fanfare, Hail Bright Cecilia, which opened the Music for Everyone 40th Celebration Concert two years ago.

Come along and watch, or sing with the choir, and be part of the creative process as Libby introduces and explores her new piece The Nightingale.

Tickets (which include refreshments and music scores) are priced at £5 (payable on the day) and are FREE for students and children.
Available from:

filling in the form via the button below
MfE Box Office (0115 9589312)
on the door

Concert: A Summer Celebration

East Midlands Youth String Orchestra
East Midlands Youth Band
Nottingham Youth Band
Nottingham Strictly Strings

Saturday 5th July, 3.30pm
St Luke’s Church, West Bridgford, NG2 6GL

Music for Everyone’s Strictly Strings, Youth String Orchestra & Youth Bands present a concert to celebrate summer! Come and listen to the exuberant talent of youth in an exciting and varied programme.

Tickets: Adult £7, Child/Student £4

Tickets will be available on the door subject to availability.

Workshop: Blow the Dust off your Instrument!

Orchestral Playing Day: 9.30am – 5.30pm
Albert Hall, North Circus St,
Nottingham NG1 5AA

Did you learn an instrument at school, only for it to be gathering dust in the attic? Maybe you have taken up an instrument later in life purely for the joy of playing?

If so, Blow the Dust off Your Instrument June 2026 is for you!

This exciting and welcoming playing day led by Alex Robinson (orchestra and string ensemble) and Claire Franklin (wind band), is designed to help you rediscover old skills or put newly learned ones into action. You will enjoy making music in a friendly, relaxed and supportive atmosphere, alongside fellow players who share your enthusiasm.

To help you feel confident and prepared, parts will be sent out in advance, giving you plenty of time to get to grips with the music before the day itself.

Dust off your instrument, rediscover the joy of playing, and join us for a day of music-making you won’t forget!

Repertoire

Orchestra

Bizet – Aragonnaise & Toreadors from Carmen Suite No.1

Rossini – William Tell Finale

Shostakovich – Waltz No. 2from Jazz Suite No.2

String Ensemble

Holst – Brook Green Suite

Handel – Sarabande

Wind Band

Whitacre – October

Watts – The Traitors TV Theme

Coates – Calling All Workers

Workshop Day Timetable

9.30 am Registration

10.00 am Morning rehearsals (to include coffee break)

12.30 pm Meal break

1.30 pm Afternoon rehearsals (to include tea break)

4.00 pm Short break

4:30 pm Informal concert for friends and family

5:30 pm End of course

Informal Performance This performance is designed to be part of the workshop experience for participants to enjoy. Friends and family will be welcome to attend. There will be no tickets but voluntary contributions in support of MfE will be much appreciated via a retiring collection.

Workshop Day Fee

The fee includes all music, the workshop experience and coffee or tea at the morning and afternoon breaks.

Orchestra players

Members of Music for Everyone £43

Non Members £53

Benefit Claimants/Students £15

Booking is now closed.

For any further information, email admin@music-for-everyone.org or telephone 0115 958 9312 (Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm)

Subsidy scheme is available, please email anne@music-for-everyone.org for further details.

NCS Concert – Cathedrals of Sound

Saturday 25th April 2026, 7.30pm, St John the Baptist Church (Beeston Parish Church), NG9 1EJ

Nottingham Chamber Singers and Wind Ensemble

Conductor: Angela Kay

Programme to include:

Bruckner – Mass No.2 in E minor

Górecki – Totus tuus

Vaughan Williams – Let all the world in every corner sing

The programme uses the spaces of the church to enfold the audience in music composed for special buildings and occasions. Bruckner’s sonorous Mass in E Minor, scored for eight-part choir and wind ensemble, takes us to the ‘new’ cathedral in Linz, Austria, while other composers convey us through England, France and Poland to Italy – from Durham Cathedral to St Mark’s in Venice, via Warsaw’s Chopin Airport!

Tickets

Tickets are available to book online via the button below or you can book over the phone by calling our Box Office on 0115 9589312. We are happy to reserve your tickets whilst awaiting the arrival of your cheque, or you can pay when you collect at the venue.

Full £15, Concession £14, Child/Student £5

Online tickets are no longer available. Please buy your tickets on the door, subject to availability, or ring the Box Office to reserve your ticket.

Workshop Day: NCM From West End to Broadway

Musicals workshop day and concert: From West End to Broadway!

Music for Everyone invites you to come and sing in an entertaining workshop of well known hits from the musicals and West End. Enjoy the glitz and glam of the theatre with our special guest compere and baritone soloist Simon Theobald, conducted by MfE’s Artistic Director, Rachel Parkes, and accompanied by Angela Foan.

Programme to include songs from Mary Poppins, Cabaret and Oklahoma!

The day will finish with an informal cabaret-style concert including a performance from MfE’s Open Voices choir.

All music will be provided on the workshop day.

Parking is available at the venue and Hucknall tram stop is an 11 minute walk away.

Timetable:

Saturday 7 March
John Godber Centre, Ogle Street, Hucknall, Nottingham, NG15 7FQ

10.00am – 6:30pm

This course is now full. Please contact the office to be put on the waiting list.

To book tickets for the concert please use this link.

Gounod Messe Solennelle de Sainte-Cécile

Nottingham Festival Chorus presents

Gounod Messe Solennelle de Sainte-Cécile

Saturday 30th January 2027
St Mary’s Church, Lace Market, Nottingham City Centre

6pm

This January, prepare to step into the streets of Paris to be charmed and delighted by Charles Gounod’s grand mass setting for choir, orchestra and soloists – described by Camille Saint-Saëns as a work of ‘simplicity, grandeur and serene light’. This, alongside Cesar Franck’s bombastic and romantic Psalm 150, and Gabriel Faure’s tranquil Pavane and Cantique de Jean Racine, will make for an evening not to be missed. Book your tickets now for a choral feast in the heart of Nottingham, at the beautiful St Mary’s in the Lace Market, it’s sure to warm even the chilliest night.

The Music:

Gounod Messe Solennelle de Saint-Cécile

Franck – Psalm 150

Fauré – Pavane

Saint-Saëns– Calmes de Nuits (NCS Only)

Fauré – Cantique de Jean Racine

Gounod – Messe Solonelle de Sainte Cécile

The Performers:

Rachel Parkes, Conductor

Henry Parkes, Organist

With the Nottingham Concert Orchestra

Soloists:

Eri Gwilym, Soprano Soloist

Eleri Gwilym graduated from Cardiff Law School before undertaking her postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music. Last year, she sang the role of Königin der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte for Charles Court Opera, having sung the role for Merry Opera in the previous year. In the Summer season, she played Jude Lofte and Roshanna Wing in the Young Artist production of Itch for Opera Holland Park before playing Donna Clara, The Infanta in Der Zwerg for Wexford Festival Opera. This year, Eleri looks forward to joining the chorus of Welsh National Opera in their upcoming production of The Flying Dutchman and to her Royal Albert Hall debut as a guest soloist at The London Welsh Festival of Male Choirs. Later in the year, she will play Sylviane in Scottish Opera’s production of The Merry Widow and Stella in La Dernier Sourcier for Buxton International Festival. When not singing, Eleri enjoys dressmaking and works with Big Tech on the implementation of the Welsh Language in Artificial Intelligence.

Thomas Elwin, Tenor Soloist

London-born tenor Thomas Elwin is recognised for his warm lyric voice, expressive musicianship and compelling stage presence, with a career spanning leading opera houses, concert platforms and festivals across Europe.
Recent operatic engagements include Alfredo in La Traviata for Opera Glass Works, Rodolfo in La Bohème, Gennaro in Lucrezia Borgia and Canio (cover) in Pagliacci with English Touring Opera, as well as Borsa in Rigoletto for English National Opera and Opera North and Arturo in Bellini’s La Straniera with Chelsea Opera Group.
On the concert platform, recent and forthcoming engagements include Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with Sinfonia Smith Square, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 at the Cheltenham Festival, Verdi’s Requiem in the cathedrals of St Albans, Ely and Canterbury, an Opera Gala with Ermonela Jaho and the BBC Concert Orchestra, and Messiah with the Hallé. He has appeared as a soloist with the Munich Philharmonic, City of London Sinfonia at the BBC Proms, and alongside Barbara Hannigan.
Thomas’s debut recital album, Le vase brisé, was released by Voces8 Records in 2025, with forthcoming recordings including Strauss songs and Britten’s Abraham and Isaac.
Earlier highlights include Lensky in Eugene Onegin at Opera Holland Park and West Green House Opera, Oronte in Alcina at Glyndebourne, Nemorino in L’Elisir d’Amore with Wild Arts, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni at English National Opera, and Sam Kaplan in Street Scene at Oper Köln.
A former chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral, Thomas was a co-founder of VOCES8. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music and Solti Accademia Bel Canto and is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.

Alex Jones, Bass Soloist

Alex has completed, with distinction, a Masters in Vocal Studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he studied with Marilyn Rees, and was awarded a Concert Recital Diploma for outstanding performance in his final recital. He enjoys a varied career working across the UK and internationally with ensembles such as The Dunedin Consort, Britten Sinfonia and The English Concert amongst others. He recently travelled to Spain with the Armonico Consort to sing Aeneas in Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas as part of the Peniscola Festival of Early and Baroque music. Additionally his solo work has taken him throughout the country performing works from Bach to Verdi and everything in between. This summer he will be involved in an internationally touring production of The Barber of Seville in the title role and was recently involved in the Armonico Consort’s production of Purcell’s King Arthur, and will be returning to the 3 choirs festival to sing Mozart’s Requiem, having previously stepped in to do the Bass solo in Elgar’s The Kingdom at the 2024 Worcester Festival.

The Festival Chorus (NFC)

The Nottingham Festival Chorus is Music for Everyone’s flag-ship choir, a large-scale four-part chorus performing major classical and twentieth-century works, with the Nottingham Concert Orchestra. There are three intensive and highly enjoyable events per year, from a one day workshop to a full weekend course and concert.

The Venue: St Mary’s is Nottingham’s greatest medieval building and an essential stop on any visit to the city. At the heart of the city’s vibrant Lace Market district, attracting visitors for its architectural splendour, the diverse range of events and concerts, and its renowned tradition of choral singing.

Tickets: Full £16, Conc. £15, Students £5, Under 18’s free

Please note that tickets for this concert are digital only. Simply bring along your booking confirmation email to show at the door.

If you would like to reserve a ticket to pay on the door, please phone the office on 0115 958 9312.

Tickets will be available to buy on the door. We accept cash or card payment.

We’re happy to offer a complimentary ticket for a registered carer accompanying a ticket holder who requires support. To reserve a free carer ticket please phone the office.

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What’s Next Wind Band