Clare Avery - Eb Horn

Clare started playing at the age of 11 when she went to secondary school in Fort William, Scotland. The brass teacher did a demonstration of brass playing for the new intake…and Clare signed up with three friends for a bit of a laugh - within a year she was the only one of the four still learning - and she was well and truly hooked! 

There was no brass band within miles of where she lived, so she only played with the school band until she went to Edinburgh University. There she had her first taste of playing in a 'proper' brass band, and contested for the first time too. In 1981 she moved to Canterbury and joined the City of Canterbury Band. Although she only played 2^nd and later 1^st horn, she was given the opportunity to play solos at concerts. 

After moving to West Yorkshire in 1985 she joined the Haworth Band on 1^st horn. It was here that Clare really learned what banding was all about - it became a serious business. She had a love-hate relationship with their solo horn player, to whom she looked up as he was an excellent player, but he used to shout at her if she didn't play something right! However it worked as shortly after joining her next band (Bulkington Silver Dunlop Engineering, just outside Coventry) she was moved on to Solo Horn. 

In her 10 years in the Midlands, she played Solo Horn with Bulkington, Amington and Unity Brass, having considerable success at contests with all three bands, including several trips to the National Finals - even coming 2^nd in the 2^nd section finals with Unity Brass. 

After moving to the Whitby area in 1998, Clare soon realised that there were few bands within travelling distance - a bit different from what she was used to! She eventually tracked down Lingdale Band who were no longer contesting due to a dearth of players, but when they merged with Yarm and started rehearsing there some of the time, she looked for something closer to home. She found Marske, a friendly band near Saltburn, and settled on Solo Horn.  

Following being asked to help out British Steel Teesside band who were top section, Clare decided to join them on 2^nd horn. However it soon became obvious that they were struggling to maintain a contesting band, mainly due to them being too far away for players to travel. After their Solo Horn left Clare took on that role although she never contested with them in that position.  

After a short break from British Steel due to an operation, Clare decided that she would like to contest again so she began to look further afield and settled on Easington Colliery Band who offered her the Solo Horn position. She had an enjoyable time there, but eventually the travelling got too much (she regularly had to travel to Newcastle and Durham for concerts throughout the summer) and she reluctantly gave it up. 

Clare had a break from playing for several years before realising that she really missed her music making and she went back to Marske who once again made her very welcome. At the same time she saw an article in the Whitby Gazette that mentioned Simply Brass and she determined to track them down, which she eventually did.  

She now plays Solo Horn at Simply Brass and 2^nd Horn at North Skelton Band (who recently came 2^nd at the national Finals in the 3^rd section) 

Favourite test pieces: Firestorm, Journey into Freedom and Year of the Dragon

Solos played: If, One Day in Your Life, Feelings, Romance in Eb (Solo Contest), On My Own (Entertainment contest), He ain't heavy - He's my brother, My Heart will go on, Goodbye to Love, The Lark in the Clear Air, Streets of London