Our Cornet Section

Tom Hutchinson - Principal Cornet

Tom began learning the trumpet at the age of nine and moved onto cornet in order to join his local brass band Stannington.

As an early teenager he joined Barnsley Building Society Band and quickly ascended to the position of principal cornet. Tom’s first taste of playing ‘top man’ in a championship section band happened a few years later, aged fifteen, when he joined the Rothwell Temperance Band under the baton of David Roberts.

During these formative years Tom also played solo cornet with the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain, attending a total of nine courses, including two courses as Leader (following in the footsteps of cornet legends; Maurice Murphy and Philip McCann). The NYBBGB also gave him the opportunity to play under: Elgar Howarth, Garry Cutt and Geoffrey Brand. However, it was the Band’s Associate Conductor, Dr Nicholas Childs who noticed his talent and later invited him to join the world famous Black Dyke Band.

Tom played for ‘Dyke’ on repiano cornet, and at the age of eighteen, was promoted to tutti solo cornet. He played with Black Dyke for four years, contributing to many contest successes including the British Open and both the English National and National Championship of Great Britain titles. During his time with ‘Dyke’ he also toured extensively across Europe and America. He was also part of an extended tour of Australia where he performed in Sydney Opera House. A further highlight during his time in the Band was playing Elgar’s Severn Suite under Sir Colin Davies.

During the period Tom played at Black Dyke he was also a student at The Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester where he studied trumpet and cornet with John Miller and Richard Marshall respectively. He graduated from the R.N.C.M with a B.Mus.(hons) degree. During his studies at the ‘Northern’ he also had lessons from Roger Webster, Jamie Prophet and John Dickenson and frequently played in the College orchestra. The most memorable musical moment for Tom as a student, was giving the world première of Elgar Howarth’s Sonatina for trumpet and pianoforte in his final recital (Richard Marshall having given the world première of the original version for brass band earlier).

After Tom graduated he was invited to join the mighty Cory Band on principal cornet, and the lure of sitting on the ‘end chair’ for the reigning; British Open, European, World Champion Band was too great an opportunity to turn down.

Tom is an ambitious man and he hopes to win many major trophies with Cory. He is also looking forward to working with the other famous Childs Brother, Bob.

Tom’s first competition with Cory will be at the Welsh Championships in March 2010.

Bert Van Thienen - Soprano Cornet

Christopher Turner

Darren Thomas

Seamus Gallagher

Richard Davies

Lisa Childs

Philip Harris

Neil Blockley

Neil began playing at the age of 7 in the Salvation Army, Pentre. He went on to become the Principal Cornet player of Treorchy Comprehensve School Band under the tuition of Ieuan Morgan, MBE.

At the age of 15 he was asked to play with Cory and has been a member of the back row team ever since. He is one of the fortunate players to have played in the historical Double win in 2000 and has been part of the band's amazing journey under Bob Childs since then.

There have been so many amazing performances during that time, but some of the highlights include the performance of Revelation in Bergen, finally winning the European after trying for so long and the amazing 2009 year!

Some other interests include skiing and singing Mack the Knife badly.

Travis Griffiths

Nicholas Brill

Born in the South Wales town of Merthyr Tydfil into a Salvationist family, Nicholas began playing the cornet at the age of 7 years old.His first teachers were Bandmaster Roberts and his grandfather Edward Brill who taught him while he was a member of the Young Peoples Band of Merthyr Tydfil Salvation Army. Most of his early playing career was spent playing in The Salvation Army as Nicholas progressed to the senior band in 1999. On entering comprehensive school, Nicholas was to come under the tuition of Mr. Howard Jones, a longtime cornet player with the famous Cory Band.

Howard was to guide Nicholas through several ABRSM exams and encouraged Nicholas to take part in the both school and county ensembles. Nicholas was a member of the member of the Merthyr Youth Orchestra and Brass Band throughout his time as a pupil at Cyfarthfa High School.

In 2002, Nicholas successfully auditioned for the Four Counties Youth Orchestra on trumpet. The orchestra is made up of players from the county bouroughs of Bridgend, Caerphilly , Merthyr Tydfil and Rhondda Cynon Taff. This was the first experience of playing mainstream orchestral repetoire and opened up a new sound world different to the sound of the brass band that he had been involved with since he was a young child.

In 2003, Nicholas joined his first contesting band Treherbert and was fortunate to play in the same section as his dad and of course Howard Jones. He achieved immediate success with the band as they went on to win the 1st Section Regional Championships of Wales in Swansea. At the same time, Nicholas was a member of the Territorial Youth Band of the Salvation Army who were directed by Dr. Stephen Cobb, the current Bandmaster of the International Staff band. Nicholas was a member of the band from 2003-2006 and progressed up the cornet bench from 2nd cornet to solo cornet.

In 2004, Alan Davies ,who was conductor of the Llwydcoed Band, asked him to join the solo cornet bench. Success was again quick in coming as the band won many local competitions and were promoted from the 4th section to 2nd section in the space of 3 years. During his time at Llwydcoed Nicholas became principal cornet of the band and helped the band to qualify for the National Championships of Great Britain in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

As a soloist, Nicholas was involved as a soloist in many concerts and also in 2005 successfully auditioned for the National Youth Brass Band of Wales. Since joining the band Nicholas has been fortunate to work with conductors such as Ray Farr, Dr. Robert Childs and Nigel Boddice MBE. The band also toured Canada in 2007 as part of their 25th anniversary and the trip created some spectular memories for Nicholas.

2006 saw Nicholas gain success as a soloist as he won the Rotary Young Musician of the Year for Merthyr Tydfil. He also had a dream that he won the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama's Young Brass Player of the Future award choosen by the principal players of the Cory Band. It was in this competition that Nicholas first came, under the influence of Christopher Turner who is a cornet player in the Cory Band and also cornet tutor at the RWCMD.

In September 2006, after gaining A levels in Music,History and Computing, Nicholas took up the offer of a place to study Music at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. Since the start of the 4 year BMUS course, Nicholas has been involved in many college ensembles including Brass Band , Symphony Orchestra and Wind Orchestra. He al;so recieves regular tuition from Christopher Turner and has recently taken the opportunity to study trumpet with Andy Everton, trumpet player with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Nicholas has also been able to work with Dr. Robert Childs and Kevin Price who is Head of Brass at the college. In October 2008, Nicholas was asked to join the Cory Band by Dr. Childs and was delighted to take up the offer to join the cornet section. Since joining the band has achieved 2 contest successes, firstly as winners of the Brass in Concert Championships and then in March 2009 the band won the Welsh Regional Championships in Swansea confirming the bands place as Number 1 band in the world.