David Hirst, Arranger for Brass Music

David Hirst

Arranger

,

Conductor

David Hirst was born in Holmfirth, Yorkshire and began his musical career at the age of ten, when he joined his local village band on B flat cornet. He progressed rapidly on the instrument and, at fourteen, was accepted into the Yorkshire Imperial Metals  Band under the watchful eye of Trevor Walmsley DFC, leaving two years later to join the prestigious Black Dyke Mills Band on soprano cornet.

David enjoyed four fruitful years with Black Dyke, touring Switzerland, Holland and Canada, as well as participating in winning the World Championship, the National Championship and the British Open competition two years in succession.

In 1972, David began studying music at the University of Huddersfield, being taught trumpet/cornet by Maurice Murphy. A growing interest in orchestral and Big Band playing led him to take up freelance trumpet playing for several years; he was one of the early members of the James Shepherd Versatile Brass.

By the mid-1970s he had taken up conducting with several village bands. He returned to Black Dyke in 1978, taking part in the Band's European Championship win, and in yet another National Championship win in 1979. In 1980 he was offered his first important conducting position with the "Andrews Heat for Hire" band, where he spent five successful years before moving to the "Lewington Yamaha" band and then, in 1987, accepting the position of Resident Conductor of the Black Dyke Mills Band with Major Peter Parkes, participating in the band's  historic tour of Australia for the country's bicentennial celebrations.

In 1989 David joined the IMI Yorkshire Band as its Musical Director, a position he left in 1992 to concentrate on freelance conducting and adjudicating.