A special concert celebrating four decades of band music at the University of Salford will raise money for multiple sclerosis.
The Musical Arts Charity Concert, held at the University’s Peel Hall from 7pm on Wednesday 4 May, will include performances of students’ work by the University’s brass band, symphonic wind band and Adelphi choir.
The concert will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the University’s Musical Arts Programme – originally known as Band Musicianship.
The programme trains musicians studying genres from classical brass to big band jazz and popular music and has produced graduates who have performed and conducted around the world.
The University of Salford was the first to introduce a programme of this kind, but it has since been adopted by universities in Europe, Japan and the USA.
The concert will be attended by special guest Eilir Williams, who graduated from the programme and went on play with European Championship-winning Yorkshire Building Society Brass Band.
Although the concert is free, audiences will be invited to contribute towards the Multiple Sclerosis Society.
The event is being held as part of the University’s two-month Create Festival, which showcases the achievements of students from the School of Arts and Media and celebrates the University’s close links with the media industry.
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Dr Brett Baker, Programme Leader for Musical Arts at the University of Salford, said: “This concert is all about celebrating the talent we have here in Salford, as well as the legacy of this programme.
“We were the first in the world to start a band musicianship course, and it was very much underrated when we set it up 40 years ago, but now a lot of the leading universities, such as James Madison and Princeton in the US, are following our model and it’s become incredibly popular in the UK and abroad.”
