Who's Who at WCB
All administration and decision making is done via our committee. Please feel free to speak to any committee member with your queries or comments. Meeting minutes are available in the Members Area. You can contact the committee here.The committee members and other officials are:
- Allan Jones (Founder and Musical Director)
- Nicola Renshaw (Chair)
- Terry Mitchell (Treasurer)
- Christine Murphy (Secretary)
- Andrew Dyson (Webmaster)
- John Glynn (Committee Member)
- Nick Bradley (Committee Member)
- Holly Coad (Committee Member)
- Doug Hawes (Committee Member)
- Alan Cottrill (Youth Band Musical Director)
- Jane Cottrill (Youth Band Secretary)
Founder and Musical Director - Allan Jones
I founded the Werneth Concert Band in 1983 and have been its Musical Director ever since.I have spent the whole of my professional life in music education, moving from a high school teaching post in Cheshire to Manchester City Council Education Department's Music Service as Senior Brass Teacher in 1971. I was, subsequently, appointed Head of Manchester Music Service and Music Adviser for Manchester from 1990 to 2007. As part of my work in Manchester I directed many groups including symphony orchestras, wind and brass bands and choirs, and performed in many of the country's major concert halls. I also undertook many concert tours throughout Europe and, further afield, to America, Canada, South Africa and Australia.
Over the years I have worked closely with most of the area's leading music organisations including the Royal Northern College of Music, Chetham's School of Music (governor), Halle Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Manchester Camerata as well as advising the regional and national arts boards.
For a number of years I served on the national executive of the Federation of Music Services and the British Association of Symphonic Bands and Wind Ensembles.
I am very proud of the successes and achievements of the Werneth Concert Band which is, truly, a community band, serving the needs of amateur musicians and audiences in and around the Stockport area - long may it continue to do so.
Chair - Nicola Renshaw
I was taught violin and piano from an early age before taking up bassoon in 1994 to fill a vacancy with Sale Youth Ensemble. In 1996 I went on to study bassoon & piano at Chetham's School of Music however subsequently completed an undergrad in Business I.T. and took up a graduate post in the Recruitment Industry where I remained for several successful years. With relocation to West Yorkshire in 2004, I joined Huddersfield Wind Band on bassoon and began sequencing music to screen at home; a hobby which quickly progressed and in 2006 I became finalist in the BBC New Talent, New TV Composers Scheme. I resigned from Recruitment to pursue a Masters in Music Composition at Salford University. My debut brass band piece 'Galway Belle' was published and performed throughout the UK in 2010 and I continue to work closely with Salford University's Wildlife and documentary film production departments.
I began playing bassoon for Werneth Concert Band in December 2008 and following a thoroughly enjoyable 18 months, volunteered myself on the committee to be involved in coordination & promotion of the band's activities.
Treasurer - Terry Mitchell
Hi, my name is Terry Mitchell and I play the part of the evil treasurer of Werneth Concert Band, and 3rd clarinet. I joined the band in 1993 after being cajoled by a member of the trumpet section whose daughter was involved with Stockport Schools Wind Band. My daughter Su (Ancliffe), oboe, played with SSWB and I was the administrator.
I have been a committee member of WCB for several years and treasurer since 2009. I believe the band is a true community band that supports its members through adversity. My recent fight with colon cancer was a case in point.
I am a Guide at Nether Alderley Mill and also a volunteer at Cheshire Countryside, both part of the National Trust. The band is a registered charity run by committee and is mostly self financing.
If you have any queries please email me or speak to me at rehearsals.
Secretary - Christine Murphy
My interest in music started with piano lessons aged 8. At secondary school I was given brass lessons once a week. I hired a Bass Trombone and attended lessons for six years, playing in numerous bands and orchestras. I actually played various brass instruments throughout my school years but preferred the trombone, even though it was like carrying a coffin around with me everywhere I went! I joined the Royal Ulster Constabulary in 1977 and was one of only two female members of the RUC Wind Band. I gave up playing music when I moved to Manchester, until my young family showed an interest in music. I took up playing the trombone again with the children and joined WCB in 1998. My son Anthony was a member of the band while he lived at home. I volunteered as a committee member in 2007 and became secretary in 2008.
I have retired as a police officer, but more recently returned to work as a Management Information Officer.
Webmaster - Andrew Dyson
My first introduction to music came by banging the keys of an aunt's piano aged somewhat less than 2. I enjoyed it, although I suspect the rest of the family might beg to differ. I later learned the piano in a more conventional manner and then at secondary school took up the clarinet, bass clarinet (still a favourite instrument) and eventually tenor sax. I played in several wind bands and smaller groups and got real enjoyment from playing in an ensemble, with all that it brings musically and socially. After flirting licentiously with rock music at university (while sporting a cheap plastic keyboard which impersonated a Hammond organ but fooled no-one) I started working in Stockport and joined WCB. I remembered vaguely how to blow down a clarinet and went from there, later moving onto tenor sax and also joining the swing band.
In 2008, having been outed as the band's resident nerd I took on the role of website manager and somehow found my way onto the committee.
In my non-WCB life I'm a systems analyst and web developer, amateur footballer and composer of dubious piano music.
Committee Member - John Glynn
I joined the band in 1994, the year I retired from headship. I had learnt the euphonium one step ahead of the children. It shows! But I am proud of my position as 10th euphonium. To avoid being removed from the band I have made myself useful by being chairman for nine years, organising many trips abroad, getting sponsorship, offering my home for the annual bbq and storage of the band's archive.
My wife, Joyce, and I are privileged to be accorded life membership.
Committee Member - Nick Bradley
I attended the first meeting of the Band in April 1983, mainly to support my daughters Kate (2nd clarinet) and Sarah (euphonium), who were interested in joining. I became Secretary of the Band straight away, a post which I held until 2004. I didn’t play an instrument myself, but I got tired of just listening, so started learning the bassoon in 1987 so that I could join in the music-making. A third daughter, Rachel, joined the horn section in 1986 for a few years, and my wife Marjorie later joined the euphonium section. Granddaughter Natasha has also recently joined the flute section. After I retired as Secretary I remained on the committee and took over from John Glynn as Chairman in 2007, serving in that capacity for three years. I have now been persuaded to re-join the committee. I have been retired from work for some years after a career as a Patent Attorney with Ferranti, formerly one of the country’s foremost electronic companies. Marjorie and I were made Honorary Members of the Band in December 2010.
Committee Member - Holly Coad
I have always been involved in music through church choir and recorder lessons from a very young age. I began playing flute in the primary school band at age 12. I continued playing all through high school (concert and marching bands) and at university, where I majored in music for the first year. After discovering that I enjoyed playing as a hobby, but not necessarily as a career, I had a long hiatus from the flute while completing my education in psychology and then in Occupational Therapy, qualifying in 1996. I currently work as an O.T. at BMI-The Alexandra Hospital. I did play occasionally with community bands in Memphis, Tennessee and Springfield, Missouri over the last 8 years that I lived in the States, so I was pleased when I moved to the U.K. (to be with my now husband) to find a long history of community bands. I was determined to find a quality band that played challenging material, and listened to several before deciding that Werneth Concert Band was the one for me. I was disappointed initially when there were no vacancies, but luckily, after a year of patient waiting and trying to get the rusty fingers working again, a spot came open! I have enjoyed this past year with the band and look forward to many, many more in the future.Committee Member - Doug Hawes
At the age of 35, for some unaccountable reason, I blew 20 years of dust off my childhood oboe and accepted the invitation of my son's trumpet teacher to come down and try a session with a very good, and also very tolerant, wind band he was then conducting. I hold him entirely responsible for the rest! It was quite nerve-racking but I eventually (re?) learned to play a bit and took my grade 7 at age 41. (I remain childishly proud of this and splashed out on a cor anglais as a reward to myself). I have found amateur classical music one of the best things I have ever done, I suspect this is because aspects of life that are often very separate merge into one - individual and collective, fun and discipline, concentration and relaxation, culture and common sense, and, of course, sobriety and intoxication!
Werneth Concert Band is especially inclusive, friendly and informal and I am pleased and proud to be a part of it. I am personally very keen to encourage and develop more informal small ensemble playing at all levels within the band.
I met my wife Helen (flute), on the WCB band tour of Spain in 2010 and we got married in 2011 to the strains of Handel, Mozart..and Werneth Concert Band's definitive rendering of Pirates of the Caribbean.