Fifty years of music-making, from a youth band founded by Arthur Doyle to one of the oldest civilian concert bands in the West Midlands.
1976 to 1991
Arthur Doyle’s band
1976
The band is born
AD Concert Band is formed as a youth band by the late Arthur Doyle, who had just retired as Principal Tuba of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. His own pupils make up most of the first players, and AD becomes one of the oldest civilian concert bands in the West Midlands.
1978
A symphony for the band
With help from the Arts Council of Great Britain, the band commissions Dr Gordon Jacob to write Symphony ‘AD 78’, timed for Arthur Doyle’s 78th birthday. It is premiered in Birmingham with Jacob present.
Early years
On the road
The band takes second place at the Youth Music Festival in Vienna, then makes its first foreign tour in southern Germany, playing public venues around the Black Forest.
1990s
Into competition
1992
A new baton
After Arthur’s passing the band has several conductors before Professor Trevor Farren, a well-known Midlands conductor and euphonium player, is appointed Musical Director. Competition success follows.
1999
Festival gold
A Gold award at the regional National Concert Band Festival.
2000s
Bigger stages
2001
On to Manchester
Silver at the regional festival, and a Bronze at the National Festival itself in Manchester. Silver at the National Festival follows again in 2006.
2002 · 2012
London calling
Concerts in St James’s Park for the Queen’s Golden and Diamond Jubilees, for the Olympics and for the passing of the Olympic Torch, plus bandstands, village halls and churches from Wolverhampton to the Cotswolds.
2003
Playing with the Army
Joint concerts with the Band of the Royal Corps of Signals between 2003 and 2005, the start of a long collaboration with military bands.
2008
A first CD
The band records its first CD, In Celebration, and gives a Centenary Celebration Concert in Ampthill for Vi Doyle, widow of the founder, on her 100th birthday. Joint concerts with the Band of the Parachute Regiment in 2008 and 2009 follow two days of workshops in local schools, the second filling a hall at Solihull School.
2010s
Forty years on
2016
Ruby anniversary
For the 40th anniversary the band gives the world premiere of Festival Prelude ‘AD Excel’, its first commission, by Philip Sparke, alongside Vaughan Williams’s Tuba Concerto with Graham Sibley, Principal Tuba of the CBSO.
2020s
Through Covid to fifty
2020
Together apart
During Covid the band keeps going with online events and Zoom meetings, and even rehearses outdoors together, down the road at Alderbrook School, whenever the weather and the rules allow.
2026
A Golden Celebration
Fifty years on, the anniversary year brings band get-togethers, a concert with Age UK, a play day with a youth band, an alumni dinner, and a final concert at The Core Theatre in Solihull featuring two world premieres commissioned for the occasion.
From the archive
Posters and programmes from past concerts. Select one to see it larger.
The band today
About 50 musicians play the full range of woodwind, brass and percussion, with 30 to 40 on stage at any one concert.
We rehearse every week in Solihull and give up to 12 concerts a year, in concert halls, churches, community halls, retirement villages, bandstands and village fêtes across the West Midlands, and occasionally beyond.
Our music is as varied as our audiences: orchestral favourites, film and musical scores, pop and rock medleys, jazz and swing, and music written for wind band, including pieces commissioned specially for us. As a registered charity we take live music to people who cannot easily get to a concert.
Professor Trevor Farren
Conductor and Musical Director since 1992
Trevor has taken the band to silver and gold awards at the National Festivals. Under his direction it has commissioned and premiered Philip Sparke’s “AD Excel” and “Golden Overture” and Katrine Aziz’s “Wendan, Wexan”, and performed across the West Midlands and beyond.
His musical journey began on trumpet and cornet. In 1979 he became a reservist Army musician with the Volunteer Warwickshire Band of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, moving to euphonium, and he is now Bandmaster of the Band of the Mercian Regiment in Wolverhampton. He studied conducting, composition and orchestration at university in Birmingham, and away from music is a Professor of Practice at the University of Nottingham.
The committee
The volunteers who book the venues, look after the music and keep the band running.
Chair
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Secretary
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Treasurer
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Concert manager
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Librarian
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Communications
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Play with us
Brass, woodwind and percussion players of a suitable standard are always welcome.