4th December 2003

Richardson Award

Two entries have been "excluded" from the final 23 as they have been performed in public before July 2003. The pieces are "Gregoritas" and "It's Not Unusual" both by Phil Lawrence.

Alan Wycherle

3rd December 2003

Richardson Award

The Foden's Richardson Band are now pleased to announce they have narrowed the Richardson Award entries down to 23 from an astounding starting number of 112.

Award co-ordinater Alan Wycherley was quoted today "It has been a far bigger success than any of us could have imagined, we are now going to rehearse the 23 pieces further and announce a final 8 or 10 by the end of the year, of these the winning composition and the winning arrangement will each receive £1000."

Listed alphabetically are the 23 entries :

It's Not Unusual	Phil Lawrence
Advent	Graham Robinson
A Gershwin Recital	A.G. Bartelds
Clash of the Titans	Roger Thorne
Don Pasquale	Peter Roberts
EN(paradoxically)	Sachi Uchida
Gambit	Simon Kerwin
God Bless the Child	A.G.Bartelds
God Bless Ye Merry	Phil Lawrence
Gregoritas	Phil Lawrence
Hey Hey	Frode Ryland
3 Interludes for Brass Band	Tony Swainson
Modal Sketches	Naomi Cornish
Opposition of Mars	James McFadden
Quest	Robert Foster
Remember Me	Leigh Baker
Somewhere Over the Rainbow	Alan Morrison
South Uist Variations	Oliver Waespi
Stagbebury Hill	Richard Taylor
Suit for Band	Chris Brown
Suit Number 1	Philip Harper
Two Xylomaniacs and a Glockaholic	Kevin Belcher
Whirlwind of Ireland	Amanda Wilkinson

The band would like to thank everyone for the obvious time taken to produce such high quality entries, and intend to announce the final 8 or 10 as soon as possible.

Alan Wycherle

8th November 2003

Foden's Richardson win the 2003 U.S. Open Brass Band Championships

The Foden's Richardson band are the new 2003 U.S. Open Brass Band Champions more....

18th October 2003

Besson National Brass Band Championships

Fodens conducted by Thomas Wyss were placed fifth in this years National Championships. Congratulations go to Fairey FP (Music) and their conductor Allan Withington on retaining their title.

The first six bands were placed as follows: -

Placing		Draw	Band	Conductor	Points
1		19	Fairey FP (Music)	Allan Withington	197
2		11	Tredegar	Steve Bastable	196
3		12	Buy As You View Cory	Robert Childs	195
4		3	Black Dyke	Nicholas Childs	193
5		2	Foden's Richardson	Thomas Wyss	192
6		17	Brighouse & Rastrick	Ian McElligott	191

Best Instrumentalist: Steve Barnes (Soprano) Buy As You View Cory

Test piece: Enigma Variations, Elgar arr. Eric Ball

Adjudicators: David Read, William Relton and Geoffrey Whitham.

13th September 2003

British Open Championships

Fodens conducted by Thomas Wyss were placed seventh in this years British Open Championships. Congratulations go to Yorkshire Building Society and their conductor Professor David King on their win.

The results were as follows: -

Placing	Band					Conductor		Draw
1	Yorkshire Building Society					Prof. David King		10
2	Whitburn					Andrew Duncan		8
3	Black Dyke					Dr. Nicholas Childs		11
4	Fairey FP (Music)					Allan Withington		9
5	Brighouse & Rastrick					Ian McElligott		17
6	Buy As You View Cory					Dr. Robert Childs		13
7	Foden's Richardson					Thomas Wyss		3
8	Ever Ready					Ray Farr		4
9	Tredegar					Russell Gray		18
10	Yorkshire Imperial Urquhart Travel					David Evans		7
11	Kirkintilloch					Frank Renton		16
12	Besses o' th' Barn					Steven Sykes		6
13	Scottish Co-op					James Scott		12
14	Leyland					Peter Bassano		5
15	Travelsphere Holidays					Major Peter Parkes		1
16	Illinois Brass					Peter Lipari		15
17	Cwmaman Institute Silver (Tower Colliery)					John Hudson		2
18	Carlton Main Frickley Colliery					William Rushworth		14

Soloist award: Gordon Jenkins, soprano cornet, Whitburn.

Test piece: The Planets Suite [Venus & Jupiter], Holst arr. Stephen Roberts.

Adjudicators: William Relton, Stephen Roberts &Philip Sparke.

8th August 2003

Richardson Award

Foden's Richardson Band announce that due to the unprecedented interest in the inaugural Richardson Award, the date for announcing the winners has to be delayed. Award coordinator Alan Wycherley stated:

"We have received over 100 entries, something that I nor the band expected. I stated when instigating the award that ALL entries would be played in their entirety by the band, and the band would then choose the winners. With over 100 new pieces to play, this puts the band under tremendous pressure to come up with a winner before September as originally forecast, especially due to certain changes within the organisation. The band are currently on a short summer break, and return to 4 contests, 2 recordings and a week in the United States in addition to 14 concerts, all in the next 3 months. Therefore to do justice to the people who have obviously spent a lot of time over their entries we need to allow ourselves more time to play and review all the entries. The announcement of the winners will be made as soon as possible"

Alan Wycherley

4th August 2003

US Open Brass Band Championships

Foden's Richardson are delighted to announce they have accepted an invitation to compete in the inaugural US Open Brass Band Championships to be held in Chicago on the 8th of November 2003. With the obvious high cost involved in such a venture, discussions are under way to organise several concerts, workshops and even a possible recording whilst the band are in the United States. Several of the band's more outgoing players are also putting together their party piece for a new and very exciting part of the competition, the "Buskers Award" where members of all competing bands can get up and do almost anything between performances. The judge is an anonymous member of the audience, and the prize…"a hat full of change".

Whilst it is tempting to see this as a "jolly", a lot of hard work, planning and coordination is in front of the band, much of which is underway now. The band aim to represent Great Britain in the professional manner that is expected of any of our countries top bands.

Alan Wycherley

28th July 2003

Thomas Wyss

Foden's Richardson Band have pleasure in announcing the appointment of Thomas Wyss as its new Musical Director with immediate effect. Chairman, Colin Short states "After the departure of Russell Gray the band asked me to find an experienced conductor who could bring enthusiasm to the bandroom and through my conversations with Thomas, I am confident that I've found the right person. As an ex -player in the band under Howard Snell, Thomas, an admired professional, will have an understanding of the unique attitude and culture that exists in our bandroom and will bring with him the hard work ethos that has made the band so successful."

Thomas will be conducting the band at this year's British Open as his first contest engagement and will share the conducting responsibilities the following day at Symphony Hall with the band's Professional Conductor Bram Tovey.

23rd July 2003

Russell Gray

Fodens Richardson Band today confirmed that they have ended their 18 month association with Musical Director, Russell Gray. Commenting on the news band Chairman, Colin Short said, "I can confirm that we have ended our association with Russell Gray with immediate effect. Naturally this was a difficult decision for the organisation to make. We would like to take the opportunity to thank Russell for his tremendous contribution to the band's continued success during his 18 month tenure and to helping maintain our position as one of the worlds leading bands. Russell crafted some fine performances as musical director of the band and we wish him good luck in his future career".

As yet the band has not secured the services of a replacement musical director and will be advising the appointment of a successor in due course.