KWO continue their run of Golds
November 16th 2008

The Kew Wind Orchestra has won another GOLD at the regional National Concert Band Festival heats for the fourth time in a row. This time KWO travelled to Northampton and dazzled the adjudicators with its challenging programme of Kenneth Hesketh's 'Masque' and Peter Meecham's 'Macbeth'.

KWO will now be heading to the NCBF finals that will take place in Cardiff in April 2009.

More info: www.ncbf.info

posted: 23rd November 2008

KWO appears in Winds Magazine
June 27th 2008

The Kew Wind Orchestra feature in the latest issue of Winds magazine in an article celebrating their success at the NCBF finals.

Winds Magazine is a quarterly journal published by BASBWE. The publication contains a mixture of news, previews and reviews, and more scholarly articles on a wide variety of topics of interest to Basbwe members.

Link: Click to read the article...

posted: 27th June 2008

KWO to appear on five's Milkshake
June 21st 2008

The Kew Wind Orchestra will be making their debut appearance on terrestrial television on Saturday morning at 8:15am.

The program involves a Milkshake presenter (Naomi) taking control of the baton in an attempt to learn how to conduct with humorous consequences.

Link: five.tv/milkshake

posted: 18th June 2008

NCBF Finals: Three Golds in a row for KWO
April 20th 2008

The Kew Wind Orchestra has confirmed its status as one of Britain's top wind ensembles by winning its third consecutive gold award at the National Concert Band Festival (NCBF) finals.

KWO was also presented with a rare consistent achievement award for its long run of high quality performances in the open class of the UK's largest wind and big band festival.

Judges Guy Woolfenden and Colin Touchin, who awarded the band gold marks in every category, praised the band's 'remarkable' rendition of Dominic Muldowney's exciting Dance Suite.

Woolfenden and Touchin, who have both conducted the highly challenging work, praised the band's decision to perform the piece as it has never been attempted before at the NCBF.

The NCBF festival, which was held in Warwick on 19th and 20th April, is the culmination of the participation of a huge number of bands around the UK representing over 5,000 musicians in total.

In the previous two years, KWO has achieved gold awards with performances of Phillip Sparke's Dance Movements and Paul Hindemith's Symphony in B Flat.

NCBF director Keith Allen praised the calibre of the KWO musicians. He added that the Hindemith and Muldowney works were rarely performed because of their musical complexities.

"KWO has consistently performed very demanding musical pieces which shows the calibre of the musicians."

More info: www.ncbf.info

posted: 14th May 2008