Dronfield appoint New MD

Dronfield Band are delighted to announce the appointment of Simon Gresswell as their new Musical Director.

Hailing from Queensbury, Simon started his playing under the guidance of the legendary James Shepherd, quickly progressing through school bands to the very successful Queensbury Music Centre band. Simon is arguably one of the most decorated players of his generation, with wins at the British Open, National, and European Championships with the likes of Black Dyke, Brighouse and Rastrick, Williams Fairey and Yorkshire Building Society bands.

Over the years Simon has been lucky to have many musical highlights including tours of Japan, USA, Europe and Australia, with other musical highlights such as the themed, "Cry of the Celts" and "Windows of the World" concerts given by Yorkshire Building Society band. As a long time Mike Oldfield fan, he was also delighted to be asked to record and perform Oldfield’s iconic Tubular Bells to audiences across the UK, going on to be voted one of the all time “top 10” BBb Tuba players by the brass band website 4BarsRest.

Simon is now much in demand as a specialist tutor of lower brass. He also works as an adjudicator and a conductor of brass bands in the UK and Europe including diverse music groups such as HM British Army Bands, Hannah Peel and The Unthanks.More recently Simon, alongside Sandy Smith have developed their own Podcast; "Smith & Grezzy Big Chat Brass" which can be found on YouTube.Commenting on his appointment at Dronfield, Simon said;"I am delighted to be asked to join Dronfield as Musical Director. I have had a few years out of conducting but took a band to the Area contest at short notice with great success. This fuelled my appetite to get involved again. Dronfield is a very stable band with a forward-thinking outlook. I have the experience and know-how at all levels of banding and look forward to sharing this with the players."