St Andrew's Church Jazz Generations - How it Went!

As part of St Andrew's Music Festival Sheffield Music Hub brought together three different big bands to celebrate the timeless spirit of big band music! Young musicians from Sheffield Youth Big Band and Hope Valley College Big Band were joined by the semi - professional Sheffield University Big Band to showcase the vibrant energy of talented young musicians’ side by side.

The evening was kicked off by "Sheffield Youth Big Band”, Sheffield Music Hub's big band which was led by Dave Burgoyne and made up of young players from across Sheffield and South Yorkshire. Playing a variety of big band classics like "Stompin at the Savoy" as well as modern bangers "Count Bubba" and "Jazz Police". The corwd favourite was "The Well's Gone Dry", which got everyone bobbing their heads.

Following them, we had “Hope Valley College Big Band”, a youth big band from the Peak District, led by Chris Burge and made up of some very talented young players. They really got the crowd going with some roaring solo's.

Then finally, our semi-pro big band, "Sheffield University Big Band", led by Will Hepworth. They gave us an exceptional performance and it was brilliant for the younger big bands to hear Sheffield University Big Band play the Big Phat Band version of Jazz Police. We are incredibly thankful to them for giving back and helping to keep the future of big bands strong!

Rory Evans from Sheffield Music Hub said "It was brilliant to see a mixture of ages come together through the power of big band music. The most impressive part of the evening however, were the soloists, every band had confident soloists who were not afraid to get up and let rip in front of the audience".

Gillian Hume, Music Hub Manager said "The concert was a fabulous, toe-tappingly joyful concert! It was really powerful and inspiring for our young musicians to share a platform with more advanced Big Band players and see where their musical journeys could take them".

William, a trombone player in Sheffield Youth Big Band, aged 17, when asked how he found Sheffield university Big Band, said "They were amazing".

We have now put the full concert on YouTube here so please take a look!