Toby is 14 years old and started playing at Primary school when Michael Dodd worked for Barnsley Music Service and did a weekly brass lesson for the whole class once a week,
Toby was only 6 at the time and little did we know how his love of brass would
literally take off. After 3 weeks of cornet he came home with a baritone which
he loved until the offer of a Euphonium was on the cards then obviously he had
to give it a go and that is where he really started to excel.

He started with the learner band at Barnsley Music Service and worked his way up
to Barnsley Met Band and Michael asked if he’d like to play for his Youth Band
at Horbury so life was getting pretty busy but I don’t think Toby could have
enough brass in his life at this point so he joined Yorkshire Youth Brass Band
as it was only every few weeks over in Diggle then auditioned for the National
Children’s Band in 2022 and was thrilled when he was offered a place. This was
around the time that Jim Fletcher started the Grimethorpe North of England Band
which at least is very local (with us living in Grimethorpe) so even though he
was the youngest to apply at 12 years old another band was added to the list.
 We thought things were settled until he saw an advert that Crofton Silver
Band was looking for a Euphonium player! My thoughts were there’s not many 14
year olds playing in the 1st section (to my knowledge) but if you want to go
and see what they think then by all means I’ll take you along to a rehearsal.
He bravely told them he was playing Grandfathers Clock  solo at the
National Youth Champs in a few weeks time and the MD Dean Jones said bring your
music next week and we’ll play it with you, Toby feeling probably more
confident than he should replied ‘I don’t need the music, I’ve learnt it off by
heart’. The following week he played it with the band, probably as a bit of an
initiation but he must have impressed as he played the solo in the first
concert he had with them last week He’s still having weekly lessons with
Michael Dodd so as you can imagine, there isn’t many days he isn’t playing but
this is his dream, he wants to pursue a career in music and play at the highest
level and I’m sure with his can do attitude, he will make it.

He’s currently playing on a Besson Prestige with a MB4 GW mouthpiece and really
impressed with the range and quality of sound he’s able to achieve.