Originally based in Wembley, North West London, Regent Brass was founded in January 1985 by a collective of young brass musicians in Brent under the leadership of Paul Fensom. Since then, the band has gone from strength to strength, forming a sister band Regent Community Brass in 2012. Following relocation, the band currently rehearses in the Chalk Farm Salvation Army hall.
Under their current Musical Director Alan Duguid the band has pursued an ambitious and eclectic programme of musical activity, regularly performing contemporary music and promoting greater diversity in programming. Last year the band created the role of ‘Young Composer in Residence’ to encourage promising composers from outside the movement to write for the medium. The band also recently performed a set of new music giving three premières at the prestigious World Music Championships in Kerkrade, being awarded a music prize for innovation.
The band also competes domestically and has enjoyed great success since its formation, rising from the Fourth Section to the Championship Section in only six years, and winning the London and Southern Counties Area Contest on five separate occasions, most recently taking the Championship Section title in 2013. Following a prize-winning performance at the area contest this year they have qualified in the First Section for the National Finals of Great Britain for the tenth time, where the band won the Third Section title in 1988.
Away from competition, the band has also toured Holland, Belgium, Switzerland the United States & Poland. They have appeared on both live and recorded programmes for all the major UK television channels and provided the brass band for the critically acclaimed film “Nowhere Boy” about the early life of John Lennon. The band have released 5 commercial recordings: Intrada (1987), Accolade (1990), RB – 10th Anniversary (1995), Score (2005) and On a Mission (2013).