Simon Jones - Musical Director
We are pleased to welcome to the band Simon Jones as our new Musical Director.
Born into a proud banding family, Simon’s musical journey began with the cornet at Teversal Colliery Band - largely because he wasn’t allowed anywhere near the drum kit that he wanted to play! He played at his first National Finals in London with the band at the age of just 10.
A move to the tenor horn soon followed, leading to promotion and solo horn with Blidworth and Ransome bands. At the age of 20, he was appointed Principal Horn of the GUS Band, where he went on to make his European Championship debut in Edinburgh, marking the beginning of an impressive career at the very highest level of banding.
At the height of his playing career, Simon had the honour of performing in the horn sections of the Black Dyke Mills Band, Williams Fairey Engineering Band and Yorkshire Building Society Band. His time within the band movement has been marked by sustained success on some of its biggest stages including The Royal Albert Hall, London’s Festival Hall, the Symphony Hall in Birmingham and the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.
Along the way, he has contributed to a number of championship-winning performances at regional, national and international level, including 3 victories at the European Championships in Falkirk, Rotterdam and Munich, a double at the National Championships of Great Britain, the British Open title, Brass in Concert and 3 English Masters trophies, along with Championship Section regional titles across Yorkshire, the North West and the Midlands areas. ⠀
Simon’s international touring experiences include Sweden, Germany, wider Europe, and Japan where he played with Black Dyke at a number of prestigious concert venues including the British Embassy, a tour which was filmed by Yorkshire Television. He was invited, alongside the legendary Sandy Smith, to record orchestral works (including tenor horn) by Villa-Lobos with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Simon has also performed with bands on television, recorded and performed on BBC’s Radio 2 and 3, and on the West End. He has played at the RNCM and in a number of world premieres for brass band. He has appeared on BBC’s Songs of Praise, Best of Brass and Children in Need and over the years, has been fortunate to accompany and share the stage with a number of world-renowned soloists, including Don Lusher and Maurice Murphy. A particular career highlight was performing with The Black Dyke Mills Band before members of the Royal Family and invited guests at St James’s Palace in London.
Simon was part of the the original Fairey’s Acid Brass lineup, culminating in appearances at The Barbican with the KLF (the Justified Ancients of Mu-Mu), the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the opening ceremony of the Tate Modern in London where the band appeared on BBC’s Newsnight.
His passion for music extends far beyond the brass band arena. Over the years, he has worked extensively with school choirs and led numerous whole-school productions, helping hundreds of young people develop confidence, creativity and a love of performance.
There have been plenty of memorable moments along the way, from one of his school choirs being invited to perform at the Derbyshire Headteachers’ Conference to what remains his all-time favourite project—an open-air production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, where the school’s woodland was transformed into an enchanted forest and the children embraced every moment of Shakespeare’s classic tale, creating a performance that was both magical and memorable.
Simon is married to fellow horn player Anita, so the family soundtrack contains more brass than most. They have two children, and when he’s not thinking about music, he’s putting his blood pressure to the test as a devoted supporter of Mansfield Town.
This long-awaited return to banding and conducting for him sees him rekindling his passion for brass bands and he is immensely proud and honoured to make his return as the new Musical Director of Holymoorside.