It is with great sadness that we mark the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Martlesham Brass has always held her in great esteem and we will miss her dedication and constant care for us.
We have followed her example of making our organisation open and welcoming to all.

We look to the future when we can celebrate her life and that of our new sovereign, King Charles III.

Martlesham Brass Publicity

April is the point in the year when things start to get busy for Martlesham Brass; as the weather (hopefully) starts to warm up the players of Martlesham Brass start to emerge into the daylight!

The Main Band has already made a trip, to the Southern Counties National Brass Band Championships in Stevenage on the 17th March. The test piece was �Suite in Bb� by Gordon Jacob and the band were placed 20th out of 28. The main band will be playing the same piece at the EABBA contest in May.
On 13th April the Main Band are performing for the Ipswich Motor Caravanners. The evening will consist of a program of light musical entertainment and dancing. This event was to be held last year, but was cancelled because of foot and mouth.

The 21st April sees the whole of Martlesham Brass parading as always with the Ipswich East Scouts in their annual St George�s Day parade. This year it is a joint parade in Ipswich town centre. The Main and Intermediate bands combine to play on the parade, hopefully joined by the Preliminary and Beginner players marching behind. The �playing and marching� is harder than it looks, so it is nice for the less experienced players to practice their marching skills without trying to play and read music on the move!

Looking forward, Martlesham Brass is taking three bands to the EABBA annual contest on May 5th in Norwich. This will be a day of mixed emotions, as Intermediate Bandleader Jayne Howlett will be conducting there for the last time, probably! Jayne, along with husband Mark and son Sam, are moving to West Suffolk. Jayne will be missed greatly as she was a founder member of Martlesham Brass, has been one of the team of bandleaders, and was the fundraising chairperson for a while, whilst also being our principal Euphonium player. Without her fantastic organisational skills and constant good humour the band would not be where it is today. Although we hope she will still come back and play with us when she can, she will be sadly missed, as will Mark and Sam. We would like to take this opportunity to wish them all the best for a happy future, and to thank Jayne for all her effort over the last five and a half years.

As we look forward to the summer many of you will be aware Martlesham Brass have a very full diary of summer events now, especially if you have tried, unsuccessfully, to book the band. If you are organising an event, particularly later in the year, we may still have a few dates left.

If you wish to book the band please contact Julie on Ipswich 620240.

If you have any general enquiries, or you wish to join the band, please contact Liz and Paul Benyon on Ipswich 623276; please note we have a waiting list for beginners at present. You can also visit our web site at www.martleshambrass.btinternet.co.uk.

Alison Eyley
Martlesham Brass Publicity Officer