Join us for our annual spring concert at Adelaide’s on Bath Street, Glasgow. We offer a programme with a perfect fusion of lyricism and dance. From the timeless elegance of classical compositions to modern upbeat tracks, we have it all!

Our programme features clarinettist Emily Barron, 2023 winner of the Scottish Young Musicians Solo Performer of the Year. Her winning performance of 

 by André Messager earned her the title from a competitive field. Emily also plays saxophone, piano and bass clarinet, and is a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and RCS Junior Symphony Orchestra. Look forward to Emily’s enchanting performance of Weber’s 

But that's not all! Brace yourself for a symphonic explosion as we unleash the pyrotechnics of Bernstein’s 

Don’t miss your chance to catch Glasgow Wind Band in concert. Secure your tickets now from the link below.

Adelaide’s Place

Dance, Rhythms and Blue

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Welcome to this Spring’s Glasgow Wind Band Concert, “

We make our return to the newly renovated Adelaide’s Place venue, in what promises to be a symphonic explosion of Latin American pounding beats, perfectly balanced with gentle lyricism.

We are particularly delighted this evening to welcome Emily Barron, 2023 winner of the Scottish Young Musician of the year with her enchanting performance of Weber’s Clarinet Concertino.

As always, I would like to thank Kevin, the band and the committee for their continued support in what promises to be an exciting year. We have our June children’s concert, “Meet the Winds,” and a joint performance with the internationally renowned Grand Symphonic Winds on their UK tour from America as part of the Glasgow West End Festival. October sees us play with the award winning Co-operative Brass Band. Do follow us on social media for details of these unmissable concerts.

Thank you for coming this evening, and we look forward to seeing you at our future events.

Andrew Russell, Chair and Principal Clarinet.

Kevin, born in Bristol in 1954, is a highly accomplished trumpeter. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music in London, winning the Brass Prize and a scholarship for Advanced Orchestral training.

Kevin has performed with prestigious orchestras such as the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Welsh Opera, and Scottish Opera, where he served as Principal Trumpet. He has been a guest trumpeter with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, collaborating with esteemed conductors.

Kevin has also been involved in chamber music, has recorded extensively, and has expanded his career into teaching and conducting, including directing various ensembles and serving as an examiner and adjudicator. Notably, he has led the Glasgow Wind Band, which has achieved the title of UK and Scottish Open Section Champions.

Emily started her musical journey playing the Eb Clarinet in Primary 3 with her Mum, Julia Barron. With a strong interest in continuing learning, she began lessons with Gillian Craven.

After playing in the National Youth Wind Ensemble of Scotland and West of Scotland Independent Schools Wind bands, Emily successfully auditioned in primary 7 for the Junior department of the Royal
Conservatoire of Scotland, where she began studying with Alison Waller. Emily is an annual participant at the Glasgow and Inverclyde Music Festivals, where for the past 2 years she won the most promising
woodwind player and in 2023 she won the most outstanding performer. In 2023, Emily was the winner of the Scottish Young Musician Solo Performer of the Year, gaining the “Maid of Morven” Trophy.

In S1 Emily also took up the saxophone studying with John Miller, where she has been equally as successful, going on to win in 2023 the RCS Junior Concerto competition and Gilbert Innes Prize for Woodwind.

From the age of 11 Emily has continued to play in NYOS, from training ensemble working her way up to the Symphony orchestra. Emily has also enjoyed being a member of West of Scotland Schools Symphony
Orchestra as well as the Edinburgh Youth Orchestra.

More recently Emily has began studying with Lawrence Gill, woodwind tutor at the RCS and principal clarinet with the Scottish Opera Orchestra. Later this year Emily will be auditioning for conservatories across the UK to pursue a career in music.

Emily has been busy in only the past week, winning the 2024 RCS Junior Gilbert Innes Prize for Woodwind, and at Glasgow Music Festival has won all of the Concerto, Sonata, Open and Premier classes, and finally the Ailie Cullen Memorial Prize for most outstanding performance.

“I wrote Breaking the Century as a brass band work, commissioned to celebrate Oxted Band’s centenary, and have used this piece as the starting point to develop the work further for concert band. Breaking the Century can be broadly described as a ‘Dance Overture.’ It is written as a moto perpetuo with its momentum and energy maintained throughout by its fast Allegro tempo.” — Nigel Clarke

“As Head of Music to the Royal Shakespeare Company, I have composed more than one hundred and fifty scores and some of the thematic material for the Illyrian Dances is adapted from music originally written for RSC productions. The precise location of Illyria was not important to Shakespeare. What excited him was the resonance of the word itself and the romance of all far away, make believe places. Illyria is Never Never Land and the idea of inventing dances for such a place intrigued me.

 has a seven-bar refrain with a rhythmic twist and highlights most sections of the orchestra. The 

 is a gentle dance featuring the flutes with a hint of dawn chorus at the close. The final 

 is a rondo with the recurring theme appearing in counterpoint to the many other themes.” — Guy Woolfenden

 — Carl Maria von Weber, arr. A. J. Stretton

Carl Maria von Weber was a German born composer and pianist, innovating the early Romantic period (1786-1826.) Composed for Heinrich Joseph Bärmann in 1811, this work only took three days for Weber to complete. It had such a great success and popularity it prompted audience member, King Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria, to immediately commission Weber to compose two further concertos for clarinet.

This evening’s transcription, by celebrated American conductor and orchestrator Mayhew Lake, has a subtle chamber music feel and showcases the gentler side of the band.

The Concertino has an unusual opening where the clarinet creeps in after a dramatic orchestral introduction. As this opening Adagio progresses, the solo clarinet continues to shine through with a heartfelt lyrical interlude over the backdrop of the accompaniment. The clarinet continues singing in the following 

 section which develops into a virtuosic passage, showcasing the clarinets agility. The 

, marked by its spirited tempo and lively rhythms, bursts with exuberance and joy. The clarinet dances through to the end with dazzling flourishes on its way to a triumphant finale.

On May 30, 2000, the world lost the singularly greatest Latin jazz artist/percussionist, Tito Puente. Often called ‘The Mambo King,’ ‘the King of Latin Jazz,’ and ‘El Rey del Timbal,’ his pounding mambo rhythm made time throb, pulsate, swivel, shake, crossing over from El Barrio in Harlem to the Palladium, to the airwaves of America.

Although not intended to be programmatic, 

 attempts to reflect the excitement and spirit of Puente’s music as well as the sorrow at losing such a legend whose career spanned over half of a century.

 — Leonard Bernstein, arr. Clare Grundman

This overture is crafted from a buoyant mixture of some of the most memorable tunes from the opera, and has become one of the most performed overtures by an American composer. The catchy tunes are cleverly cast into asymmetrical patterns (a typical Bernstein trait), that keep the bouncy drive going at a furious rate as this brief overture careers to the end. The overture to Candide has taken its place as representative of one of the most multi-talented and influential musicians of the 20th century.

 can be found in a copy of Playford’s Dancing Master. This publication was a collection of popular tunes of the 17th century, and was used by master fiddlers to teach members of the court the various dance steps of the day. The melodies I have used are a mixture of new and old, and the harmonies and rhythms added have brought a breath of the new into these themes, and add to the drama of the set.”

: Gentle and lilting, almost a barcarole and is very much a reverie. This melody was first used in The Beggar’s Opera by John Gay in 1728.

: A colourfully buoyant scherzo on an original melody. The thematic material is shuttled around various instruments within the band to contrast with full-bodied tuttis.

: A rather tender pavane, also on an original theme but with Moorish leanings.

: This dramatic and exhuberant finale is built around the tune ‘Goddesses’ from Playford’s Dancing Master and an original contrasting melody.

 is a set of three original dance-like movements celebrating the joy and energy of Afro-Cuban music and people of this island nation. The opening conga sets the mood, followed by a gentle and alluring son-salsa. The closing dance is a fast-paced mambo. It provides a multi-cultural music experience.” — Robert Sheldon

The title alludes to the Blues and a jazz feeling is prevalent, but this is not simply a Blues piece as there are no 12-bar Blues progressions and hardly any swung eighth-notes. Yet this piece is heavily influenced by the Blues. According to the composer, “‘Blue notes’ (flatted 3rds, 5ths, and 7ths) are used constantly; Blues harmonies, rhythms and melodic idioms pervade the work; and many ‘shades of blue’ are depicted, from bright blue, to dark, to dirty, to hot blue.”

At times, Blue Shades burlesques some of the cliches from the Big Band era, not as mockery, but as tribute. A slow and quiet middle section recalls the atmosphere of a dark, smoky Blues haunt with fascinating solos by bass clarinet and oboe. An extended, gutsy, clarinet solo recalls Benny Goodman’s hot style and ushers in a series of wailing brass chords recalling train whistle effects commonly used during that era. High energy and jazzy sounds build to a critical mass, a pressure cooker of excitement. The final stroke on the splash cymbal reminds the listener that this piece is a friendly tribute to an earlier style.


Linda Bryce
Richeldis France
Sarah Horne
Karen McKay
Nick Joint


Ann Cameron
Karen Gillespie
Claire Hinchliffe
Andrew Russell
Oona Tanner
Katrina Walker


John Paul Berrie
Kirsty Gordon
Lorraine Melone
Karyn McWilliam


Robert Churchill
Julian Gonzales
Claire Mitchell
Gemma Swann
Gordon Thomson


Dougie Cameron
Colin Forbes
Oliver Searle
Jack Walker


Thomas Bain
Heather Cowan
Megan Heggie
Stuart Rynn

Our next concert is coming 23 June, where we’ll invite our younger audience members to “

We’ll also be performing alongside visiting US band on 

, Grand Symphonic Winds — come along and give support to our wind friends across the pond!

Don’t forget keep an eye on the website and subscribe to our social feeds for any festival performances or other activity in between.

Interested in sponsorship? Support local music, and reach music lovers and musicians at once. Enquire at 

Join us for our annual spring concert at Adelaide’s on Bath Street, Glasgow.

Date	Sat, 23 March 2024
Time	19:30–21:30
Venue	Adelaide Place Baptist Church, 209 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 4HZ
Performers	Glasgow Wind Band, Kevin Price (cond.), Emily Barron (clarinet)

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23 March 2024 / Dance, Rhythms and Blue