The NYBBGB Youth Band Summer Concert 2026 comes to YouTube tomorrow night
More than 90 outstanding young brass and percussion musicians take centre stage as The NYBBGB’s Youth Band Summer Concert 2026 receives its free YouTube Premiere at 7.30pm on Friday 18 September.
Join the Premiere free on The NYBBGB YouTube channel here.
This summer, The NYBBGB Youth Band filled The Forum, Bath with a programme on an ambitious scale: two world premieres, a major concerto, music spanning generations and more than 90 of the UK’s finest young brass and percussion musicians performing together. Now the complete concert, professionally recorded live on 8 August 2026, is coming to YouTube for audiences everywhere to enjoy.
Guest Conductor Lt Col Lauren Petritz-Watts, herself a former NYBBGB member, led the Band through a programme inspired by ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ – taking familiar musical material in new directions while also introducing audiences to brand-new works.
Two world premieres formed a major part of the evening. Simon Dobson’s MACHINE!, commissioned by Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd and made possible through its generous support, offered a striking exploration of humanity’s relationship with machines and technology.
The second, Martyn Brabbins’ In Memoriam: E.H., looked instead to the Band’s own musical heritage, paying tribute to the late Elgar Howarth – composer, conductor and one of the most influential figures in the development of modern brass band music.
The idea of musical reinvention continued throughout the programme. Johan de Meij’s Extreme Makeover transformed material by Tchaikovsky into a spectacular contemporary work for brass, while the concert also featured Jacob Larsen’s Ad Astra, Liz Lane’s Serenata and Ashley Marston’s Echoes of Youth.
At the centre of the evening was internationally acclaimed tuba soloist Ross Knight. He joined the Band for Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Tuba Concerto, arranged for brass band by Phillip Littlemore, and Peter Graham’s virtuosic Quicksilver, before returning later with Øystein Baadsvik’s Fnugg as an encore.
The Bath concert also represented an important milestone for Tommy Tynan. Following his victory in The NYBBGB Young Conductors’ Competition 2026, Tommy spent the summer course working alongside Lt Col Lauren Petritz-Watts as Assistant Conductor before taking to The Forum stage to conduct Serenata and Echoes of Youth.
After a week of intensive rehearsals and tuition at Taunton School, the concert provided a fitting finale to the Youth Band’s summer together. It subsequently received a 4.5-star review from 4barsrest, before the evening finally drew to a reflective close with Philip Wilby’s The Day Thou Gavest.
Tomorrow night offers the chance to experience it all again – or to discover the concert for the first time.
The complete NYBBGB Youth Band Summer Concert 2026 premieres free on YouTube at 7.30pm on Friday 18 September. Following the Premiere, the concert will remain available free to watch on demand on The NYBBGB YouTube channel.
