About the Band

The Youth Band is for our most experienced players, typically those in school year 9 or older, or those working at a grade 4+ level. The Youth Band is primarily led by Matt Hawkins, and is very fortunate to have Paul Norley as a tutor, and musical director.

WHEN?

We meet on six Sundays each academic year from 10:00am-16:00pm.

View our term dates to see when we are next meeting.

WHERE?

Rehearsals are held at West Exe School in Exeter (EX2 9JU), with easy access from across Devon and East Cornwall.

HOW MUCH?

The first rehearsal is completely free. After that, membership costs just £70 for the full academic year (six rehearsal days).

If a child joins midway through the year this will be calculated pro-rata.

Paul Norley

Paul Norley began his musical career at the age of eight with the Devon based Totnes Band. In 1982 he joined the Army immediately on leaving school. In 1996 he attended the Bandmaster’s course at the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall; appointment as Bandmaster of The Light Division soon followed. Whilst in this post he studied with the University of Salford and was awarded the Licentiate Diploma in Brass Band Adjudication. He was appointed as the Training Design Team Warrant Officer at Headquarters Corps of Army Music, Kneller Hall in 2003. On commissioning, he became Director of Music of The Band of The Royal Irish Regiment (2006) and Director of Music of The Band of The Kings Division (2008), also accepting the post of Musical Director to the National Youth Marching Band, an ongoing and immensely rewarding

role. Promoted to Major in 2010 he was appointed as Officer Commanding Training Development Team, Kneller Hall. A further move in 2013 saw him become Director of Music of The Brigade of Gurkhas. He returned to Kneller Hall in 2016 as Staff Officer Plans. 2019 saw him appointed as Director of Music of The Band of The Coldstream Guards; he retired to civilian life from this prestigious appointment in 2021. Since then, he has taken on the role of President of the Traditional Marching Band Association (TYMBA) and now finds himself involved with Youth Marching Bands across the whole of the UK. Paul has enjoyed numerous competition successes as a conductor and regularly adjudicates at Brass Band Regional Qualifiers and local contests across the UK and overseas. Happy to step ‘outside of the box’, he is in constant demand delivering workshops and masterclasses for both bands and conductors.