About The Band

A Brief History of the Band 

Musical Director: Christopher Binns

The Band was formed in 1979 by former members of the Highlands School Concert Band, Halifax and performed under the title of The Highlands School Old Students Band. As the popularity of the band grew, so did the number of requests for membership from musicians not previously associated with The Highlands School, and in 1990 membership became open to all and the name of the band changed to The Highlands Concert Band.

Such has been the success of the band that in January 2001 we decided to change our name again, now performing as Halifax Concert Band. We believe that our new name reflects more appropriately the community which the band serves. We are the only adult wind band in the Calderdale area and have a membership of forty musicians.

Our reputation is well established in Calderdale, but we also perform concerts further afield. During 1998 the Band performed concerts in Lille, France, and in 2000 travelled to Ludenscheid, Germany to perform. Other concert venues have included the Piece Hall and The People's Park in Halifax, Peasholm Park, Scarborough and the Dickensian Christmas Festival at Grassington.

Joint concerts in previous years have seen us playing alongside many of the Bands of Her Majesty's Armed Forces including The Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, The Royal Air Force Regimental Band, The Duke of Wellington's Regimental Band, The Prince of Wales' Own Regiment and The King's Division Waterloo Band.

Our musical repertoire is extremely varied to cater for all tastes and occasions and includes classical, popular, light and novelty items, as well as the traditional marches.

Christopher Binns 

BEd (Hons), MSc, LTCL (CMT), A.Mus LCM and Musical Director of the Halifax Concert Band

Christopher Binns is a Halifax born composer, conductor and teacher who joined the band as conductor in 1996.

He has a wide experience of performing with bands and choirs, and many of his compositions are written either for concert band or youth choir. Some of his band pieces feature in Halifax Concert Band's repertoire, such as Concert Rock, Razzle Jazzle, Rock Conspiracy and his most recent works, Rhapsody for Euphonium and Concert Band, Another Midnight Clear, In Celebration, Perspectives and Go with the Flow. His music has been performed widely and recorded by bands of the H.M. Armed Forces, including the Duke of Wellington's Regimental Band, and the Band of the 1st Batallion Queens Lancashire Regiment.

His vocal works include four musicals, much music for youth choir and the well-known Song for Youth which has been widely performed, broadcast and televised since it was commissioned in 1986 for International Youth Year. Included as performers in the Song for Youth were the Black Dyke Brass Band, the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band, the Halifax Choral Society and many other youth bands and choirs. It has also been performed often as a combined mass choir and band piece - regularly featuring hundreds of young performers.

Christopher has been involved with much community music making in Halifax. He was the Musical Director of the Halifax Light Opera Society during the late 1980s, Chairman of the Halifax Arts Council for several years and conducted four of the Piece Hall "Whit Sings". He was also the keyboard player with the well-known Halifax group Dino And The Travellers for many years.

His other main involvement has been with the work of examination boards, with which he was associated for over 20 years. He was very closely involved with the development and implementation of the GCSE music examination prior to 1988, and for 10 years was the Principal Moderator, and later Chief Examiner, for GCSE music for one of the major examination boards. His book Composing - A Student's Guide, published in 1996 by Nelson, and now in its second edition, has been widely used in secondary schools and by students preparing for the composing component of the GCSE music examination.