22nd June 2024

 Rayleigh Brass provided the sounds of summer with help from the Cantare choir. The concert was warmly received by our audience on a nice summers evening.

Please see our engagements page for details of future concerts.

Join Rayleigh Brass!

We have vacancies for front and back row cornets, tenor horn, Bb or Eb bass.

• Did you learn a brass instrument at school, but have never experienced the joy of playing in a brass band?

• Maybe you played years ago, and are interested in a return to brass banding in a relaxed and fun environment.

• Perhaps you currently play in a contesting band, and are becoming tired of the pressure and test pieces.

We are a friendly and inclusive band who aim to play a varied programme to a high standard whilst maintaining a fun and family friendly atmosphere. See our previous concerts page for examples of our repertoire, and contact us if you would like to attend a rehearsal.

“I really liked the eclectic mix of pieces”. 

“What a great night at the Mill Hall tonight. We really enjoyed it. “

“Thoroughly enjoyed it. And especially being back in the Mill Hall again too”

“Was a fabulous concert tonight. All the solo players were brilliant. Bring on the next concert”

The band has been established in South Essex for over one hundred years and at the moment has almost full membership. We play a varied programme to a high standard and have a reputation for a progressive and changing repertoire of music. We play mainly concerts but also perform at fetes and other functions. 

The band is able to deliver high quality and entertaining concert programmes at the same time as maintaining a very friendly and inclusive atmosphere. We do not enter contests like many bands, but seek instead to broaden the appeal of the band beyond the traditional brass band image, playing a wide and challenging repertoire, at the same time trying to relate to our audience.

Rayleigh Brass acknowledges its role in the community, and has raised funds in the past for BBC Children in Need and local charities, and is always willing to consider appearing at charity fund-raising events. In the weeks preceding Christmas the band fields several groups each day at locations throughout southern Essex, playing carols for shoppers and at social functions in order to raise funds to donate to local charities.

Further from home, the band has played on several occasions in Ypres, Belgium, culminating in a moving experience for the band and audience when they performed at the remembrance service at the famous Menin Gate - the monument to the many thousands who lost their lives in the First World War at Flanders Fields.

We rehearse  on  a Thursday evening at Battlesbridge Free Church. Please contact Kevin Hall on 01245 323441 or info@rayleighbrass.com if you are interested in joining the band or would like further information.

Watch our lockdown recordings on YouTube