Band’s Director Is Master of Music
Feb
2011
Congratulations
to our director of music, Dr. Tim Thirst, who has been awarded his second
Masters from Sheffield University. The
Master of Music (MMus) degree was conferred at a graduation ceremony in
Sheffield last week. Tim is also a graduate of Middlesex, Cranfield and The Open
Universities.
As well as specialising in brass band composition and music training initiatives
for young people, he also wrote and directed a documentary on Norfolk composer
and folksong champion, Ernest (Jack) Moeran (1894-1950), who lived at Bacton and
went to school at Cromer.
Moeran followed Vaughan Williams in his conviction that folksongs breathed the
very spirit of the English countryside. In the 1920’s he travelled through
East Norfolk collecting recordings - particularly around Hickling, Catfield and
Sutton – and basing his compositions on them.
In November 1947 Moeran produced a radio programme East Anglia Sings,
for the BBC Third Programme, with recordings of folksongs from the Windmill
public house at Sutton.
“The most surprising part of this research for me” - said Tim
"I think it is important for the band and as an example to the young people
I train - that as their director of music, I try to achieve the highest
standard in my own music training".