Climate Action

In association with the Arts Fundraising & Philanthropy Programme, the Sheffield Region Brass Network has published a new online guide to help brass bands adapt to a sustainable, resilient, and climate-changed future. The climate is changing around us and is impacting on everyone’s lives across the world.  As a part of the creative industries sector brass bands are uniquely placed to play a leading role in driving change, and in transforming environmental understanding at a community level. Most current climate change adaptation guidance is aimed at large-scale organisations and is inappropriate for the scale of cultural community organisations like brass bands, or their creative activities.  The suggestions on the Sheffield Region Brass Network website tailor specific guidance and an easy-to-follow […]

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Sheffield Region Brass Network – About Us:

The Sheffield Region Brass Network is a not-for-profit organisation originally established in 2013 by Rachel Veitch-Straw, David Morris and Stuart Young to increase the profile and visibility of brass bands in the Sheffield City Region UK through Information, Education and Advocacy by facilitating regular networking meetings and providing relevant online support where available. The Sheffield Region Brass Network is now administered by Joy Newbould, Stuart Young and Sophie Anderson. Joy Newbould BA PGCE – Chair Joy began her banding career aged 10 in Carlton Silver Band (Nottinghamshire); her highlight there, winning 3rd Section (1978) in London. Joy studied for a music degree at Bretton Hall College. Whilst there, Joy played with several Yorkshire bands under such luminaries as Peter Kitson, Ray […]

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Audience development

At the recent Sheffield Brass Network event, “Better contact with the media and your audience”, Dr Sarah Price was invited to give a presentation on ‘Understanding audiences for the contemporary arts’. Dr Sarah Price is an audience researcher and member of the Sheffield Performer and Audience Research Centre (SPARC), a Research Associate for the AHRC-funded project ‘Understanding Audiences for the Contemporary Arts’, and, at the time of her presentation, had just reached the culmination of a 2½ year study working with arts organisations in Birmingham, London, Liverpool, Bristol and Sheffield to explore how people engage with contemporary dance, theatre, music, visual art and everything in between to develop strategies for recruiting and retaining new audiences. Sarah took the opportunity at […]

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Effective Social Media and blogging for bands

At the recent Sheffield Brass Network event, “Better contact with the media and your audience”, Alex Burns was invited to give a presentation on ‘Effective Social Media and blogging for bands’. Alex has a music performance degree at the University of Sheffield, an MA in Musicology, works alongside several local music organisations and currently holds a trumpet residency with the Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as playing cornet with the Yorkshire Championship Section Old Silkstone Band. Alex also administrates the award-winning Classicalexburns classical music blog. Here’s a synopsis of what Alex revealed about social media at the event: What can social media do for my band? – Reach new audiences – Keep your already engaged audiences up to date with […]

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Funding Advice Seminar Review

After several months of organisation and liaison, we were pleased to be able to facilitate a funding advice seminar on Wednesday 6th February. Stuart Young introduced the Sheffield Brass Network (SBN) event and thanked Chris Palmer and Sam Craggs of SoundBytes Media for hosting it at The Foundry Studio in Sheffield. Presentations followed by Richard Brown of Arts Council England, Peter Foyle of the South Yorkshire Funding Advice Bureau (SYFAB), and Rachel Veitch-Straw of Key Fund, with over 30 attendees present from all corners of the Sheffield City Region and beyond, including Lincolnshire, North Nottinghamshire, Doncaster and Chesterfield. Ensembles other than brass bands had been invited to take part in the event and we were pleased to welcome representatives from local choirs and orchestra. […]

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Brass Band Funding Advice Seminar

The next Sheffield Brass Network event is planned for Wednesday 6th February 2019 and will be held at 19:30 – 21:30 at The Foundry Studio, 3 Brown Street, Sheffield S1 2BS. Richard Brown from Arts Council England, Peter Foyle from South Yorkshire Funding Advice Bureau, and Rachel Veitch-Straw from KeyFund have been invited by the Sheffield Brass Network to present funding advice and information of specific relevance to brass bands and music-related ensembles at this event. There will be plenty of time at the event for attendees to quiz the fund representatives with specific band and ensemble-related questions. This ‘free’ seminar will be open to any brass band or music-related ensemble representative(s) within striking distance of Sheffield, however preregistration by […]

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Engagement benefits with leisure-time music are multi-layered

‘Making music is fun, uses different skills to those you need to employ in the rest of your life, is relaxing and stress-busting, and makes you feel better about yourself. In scientific terms, there is now a growing body of’ proven ‘research which shows that this can amount to better physical and mental health: making music really is good for you’ – and therefore ‘saves the NHS and social services money’. ‘Everyone can make music, from a two-year-old to a 90-year-old, whether rich or poor, disabled or not. It can help to bring communities together across generations, social classes, income brackets, disabled’, and able-bodied. ‘An obvious benefit of that is that it reduces loneliness and social exclusion, which are a […]

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