Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
The NYBBGB Youth Band under the direction of Guest Conductor Lieutenant Colonel Lauren Petritz-Watts and Assistant Conductor Tommy Tynan, winner of The NYBBGB Young Conductors’ Competition 2026, featuring Guest Soloist Ross Knight (tuba).
Following three sell-out concerts in 2025 and two sell-out Easter concerts earlier this year, The NYBBGB Youth Band — featuring more than 90 of the UK’s finest young brass and percussion players — performs for one night only after an intensive week of rehearsals and tuition at Taunton School. Joining the artistic team as Assistant Conductor is Tommy Tynan, who worked alongside Lieutenant Colonel Lauren Petritz-Watts throughout the course before making his conducting debut with The NYBBGB in this concert, following his victory in The NYBBGB Young Conductors’ Competition 2026.
The concert theme Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is explored through a musical journey that reflects sustainability, transformation and renewal. The programme considers how music can mirror environmental responsibility through the reworking of existing musical ideas, the reinvention of classical repertoire in new forms and the creative reuse of materials both within performance and composition. Across the evening, audiences were invited to experience how the brass band tradition can engage meaningfully with contemporary environmental themes, using music to reflect on regeneration, memory and innovation.
Programme Highlights
The concert opens with Jacob Vilhelm Larsen’s ‘Ad Astra’, an uplifting and contemporary work whose title translates as ‘to the stars’, celebrating aspiration, progress and human potential. The programme also features Ralph Vaughan Williams’ much-loved ‘Concerto for Tuba in F Minor’ in a new brass band arrangement by Philip Littlemore, performed by internationally acclaimed Guest Soloist Ross Knight. Originally written for orchestra in 1954, this new interpretation breathes fresh life into a classic work, reflecting the concert’s theme of reuse and reinvention.
Themes of reflection and renewal continue in Liz Lane’s lyrical ‘Serenata for Brass Band’, written in memory of a much-loved band member and celebrating the enduring community spirit of brass banding. The NYBBGB’s ongoing commitment to innovation is showcased in the world première of Simon Dobson’s ‘MACHINE!’, a brand-new commission made possible by the generous support of Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd and inspired by environmental responsibility, sustainability and the relationship between humanity and industry.
The concert also includes the world première of ‘In Memoriam: E.H.’ by Martyn Brabbins, President of The NYBBGB, written in tribute to former President Elgar Howarth and honouring his lasting influence on British brass music. Johan de Meij’s spectacular ‘Extreme Make-over’ brings the programme to an exhilarating conclusion. Inspired by themes from Tchaikovsky transformed through continuous musical metamorphosis, the work perfectly embodies the concert theme of transformation and reuse, even incorporating tuned bottles within the percussion section to create unique recycled sound-worlds.
Together, the programme explores how music can reimagine existing ideas, preserve heritage and inspire new thinking — celebrating creativity, sustainability and the future of brass band music.
This concert was presented with the generous support of World of Brass.
A recording of the concert will be available on our YouTube channel from 18th September 2026.
Guest Conductor
A former member of The NYBBGB, Lieutenant Colonel Lauren Petritz-Watts graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), studying euphonium under Robert Childs and Steven Mead. She was a semi-finalist at the Leonard Falcone International Euphonium and Tuba Competition in the USA and a founder member of the Euph4ria Tuba Quartet, with whom she received the Philip Jones Chamber Music Prize. The quartet performed at recital venues across the UK, including St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, and as guest artists at the International Tuba and Euphonium Conference in Budapest, Hungary.
Lauren has performed as a soloist with the RNCM Brass Band, contributed to CD recordings with the RNCM Wind Orchestra, appeared in BBC Radio 3 broadcasts with the Hallé Orchestra, and performed with various Championship Section brass bands at the highest level.
Currently employed as Principal Director of Music (Army) within the Royal Corps of Army Music, previous appointments include Assistant Director of Music for the Band and Bugles of The Rifles; Director of Music for the Band of the Royal Logistic Corps; and Director of Music for British Army Band Colchester, where she was honoured to lead the band when it was awarded Royal Corps of Army Music Band of the Year in 2021.
In 2022, Lauren was privileged to become Director of Music for the Band of the Welsh Guards, during which time she provided musical support for numerous State Ceremonial occasions, including the funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II, The Coronation of King Charles III, and as lead band for the King’s first Birthday Parade, when the Welsh Guards Trooped the Colour in 2023.
Throughout her conducting career, Lauren has been fortunate to conduct at multiple State Ceremonial events and National Commemorations, with massed bands including the Basel Tattoo and Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, at The FA Cup Final, on Britain’s Got Talent, at concerts across Europe, and through charity, community and youth music engagements. She has also worked with international military musicians overseas and as an adjudicator, including at the St Patrick’s Festival in Dublin.
This breadth of experience continues to reinforce Lauren’s belief that music connects people across societies and cultures, creating opportunities for positive impact.
Assistant Conductor
Developing the next generation of musical talent is central to The NYBBGB’s mission. Alongside inspiring young brass and percussion players, The NYBBGB is committed to nurturing the conductors and composers who will shape the future of the brass band movement through its biennial competitions.
This commitment to talent development has brought Tommy Tynan to this year’s summer course and concert. Winner of The NYBBGB Young Conductors’ Competition 2026 following a highly competitive final earlier this year, Tommy has joined the artistic team as Assistant Conductor, working alongside our Guest Conductor Lt Col Lauren Petritz-Watts during rehearsals before making his conducting debut with The NYBBGB in today’s concert. We are delighted to welcome him to the artistic team.
Born in Saddleworth, a stronghold of British brass banding, Tommy was immersed in music from a young age. After early beginnings on cornet and drums, he discovered his passion for the tuba and joined Marsden Silver Prize Band at 14. Under the mentorship of Glyn Williams and Les Neish, he quickly progressed on BBb Tuba, earning a place with The National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain and collecting awards such as the Tom Atkinson Award and the Katie Ogden Solo Award.
Tommy’s early career highlights include a year with Grimethorpe Colliery Band, playing a part in their 2015 British Open victory. He then spent several years with Oldham (Lees) Band while also building conducting experience and enjoying success in regional contests. In 2019, he committed fully to music, studying Tuba at the University of Huddersfield. There, he expanded into EEb Tuba performance and joined the Fairey Band.
Upon graduating with First Class Honours and the University Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Brass Department, Tommy uprooted his life and moved to Wales, joining the then number-one brass band in the world, Cory Band, as Principal Eb Bass. He quickly contributed to victories including the Welsh Regional Championships and European Brass Band Championships in 2022. His time at Cory was fruitful, with solo performances in concerts and contests earning critical acclaim and accolades including the 4barsrest Band of the Year and Cory Band Player of the Year awards. He was also an integral part of Cory’s triumphant return to Brass in Concert in 2024, where he was featured soloist in their acclaimed entertainment programme.
Internationally, Tommy has performed extensively across Europe and as far afield as the USA, South Korea and Australia, where he helped Brisbane Excelsior Band reclaim the national title in 2024. He has also tutored at Norway’s Manger Folkehøgskule and worked with the Five Lakes Silver Band in the USA, whilst also visiting Beijing, China, on numerous occasions to develop a new tuba.
In 2025, Tommy returned to the RNCM International Festival of Brass, performing his own arrangement of Ricardo Mollà’s ‘AMAIA – Concerto for Tuba’, which he reprised 12 months later whilst appearing as a visiting clinician at Mahidol University in Bangkok.
Now a sought-after soloist, arranger, conductor and educator, Tommy has returned to the north of England as Principal Tuba with the legendary Black Dyke Band. He is a Performance Artist for Randefalk Music and the official Brass Band transcriber for Ricardo Mollà.
Guest Soloist
Ross Knight is Principal Tuba of Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Tuba Tutor at the Hochschule der Künste Bern in Switzerland. Since September 2022, he has also been International Visiting Tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
He has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, where he was a member of the prestigious Karajan-Akademie, the London Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, amongst others. He was also Principal Tuba of the European Union Youth Orchestra from 2012–15 and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester from 2015–16.
The Overall Winner of the BBC Radio 2 Young Brass Award in 2012, Ross was awarded Second Prize at the European Brass and Percussion Solo Championships in Perth, Scotland, in 2014. In 2019, he was awarded Second Prize in the tuba category at the Aeolus International Competition for Wind Instruments and was named the Overall Winner across all categories.
As a soloist, he has performed with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, BBC Concert Orchestra, Tredegar Town Band and Grimethorpe Colliery Band. He appears on the Chandos recording of Edward Gregson’s ‘Tuba Concerto’ with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and is the featured soloist on Tredegar Town Band’s recording ‘Vaughan Williams on Brass’, performing the composer’s ‘Tuba Concerto’.
Having served as Interim Professor of Tuba and Euphonium at the Haute école de musique de Genève during 2022–23, Ross regularly gives masterclasses at leading European conservatoires, including the Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music in London. He has also taught at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Lyon, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Haute école de musique Vaud Valais Fribourg. He was Tuba Tutor for the Australian Youth Orchestra in 2019, the Nationale Jugend Brass Band der Schweiz in 2024 and the National Youth Brass Bands of Scotland in 2024.
Ross Knight is an artist with B&S Instruments, Melton Meinl Weston and Besson.