OUR STORY
Foothills Brass Band is a new British-style brass band based in Upstate SC under the direction of Dr. Arthur Haecker and Dr. David Hamilton.
This group has come together through the vision and hard work of Dr. Arthur Haecker and a few others in the Upstate music community. In the fall of 2022, Dr. Haecker began recruiting players for this new ensemble. We held an organizational meeting in January of 2023 and over 30 people came out. Many are full-time professional musicians. Some are members of one or more local orchestras, including the Spartanburg Philharmonic, Greenville Symphony, and many other regional orchestras in the area. Many of our members are music educators, from the elementary to the college level. Others are music students and a few are dedicated hobbyists who just love to play. All were brought together by the challenge of playing brass band music. The brass band format provides the opportunity to play very challenging repertoire, as parts that would be given to strings or woodwinds in other groups must be played by brass players.
History of the British Brass Band
In Britain, a brass band (known regionally as a silver band or colliery band) is a musical ensemble comprising a standardized range of brass and percussion instruments. The modern form of the brass band in the United Kingdom dates back to the 19th century, with a vibrant tradition of competition based around communities and local industry, with colliery bands being particularly notable. The Stalybridge Old Band (still in existence) was formed in 1809 and was perhaps the first civilian brass band in the world.
Bands using the British instrumentation are the most common form of brass band in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, and are also widespread in continental Europe, Japan and North America. The tradition for brass bands in the UK is continuing, and local communities and schools have brass bands. British band contests are highly competitive, with bands organized into five sections much like a football league. Competitions are held throughout the year at local, regional, and national levels, and at the end of each year there are promotions and relegations.
The traditional brass band instrumentation consists of cornets, flugelhorns, alto horns, baritones, euphoniums, trombones, Eb and Bb basses (tubas), and percussion. All instruments are pitched in Eb or Bb and all music is traditionally written in treble clef, except for the bass trombone, which in the past was often pitched in G. (WIKIPEDIA)
As a new brass band, we do not have a completely traditional set of instruments. Some of the cornet parts are being played on trumpet and French horns in F are playing the Eb alto horn parts. Our tubists are playing American style tubas instead of the British style Eb and Bb instruments.