York Concert Band was formed in 1992 to fill a musical gap in the city. On 7th July 1992 we held our first rehearsal at St. Clement's Church Hall with eleven players: two flautists, three clarinettists, two trumpeters, one trombonist and three tuba players. Four of us still remain in the band: Gerry Goodwin, Tiddy Mead, Colin Allison and Mick Reeder.

Bill Gilpin joined us on 20th July as our first conductor, leading us for ten years and recording our first CD with us. Having advertised locally in October 1992, we more than doubled our band membership. Our opening concerts followed swiftly, the first at Connaught Court on 16th November 1992 and the second on 21st November at Claypenny Hospital in Easingwold. The programme included, amongst others: Jesus Christ Superstar, Nibelungen, Over the Rainbow and Music of the Night.

Our first library of music was borrowed from the Yorkshire Volunteers' Band. However, a £400 grant from York Council enabled us to buy our own music, which we had spotted for sale from various Scottish Regiments in Edinburgh. We still have it to this day, though we have bought much more since then.

We held our first meeting on 18th January 1993, but as the band and our engagements grew, on 22nd January 1996 we held our first official AGM and decided to form a committee to run the band, as we do to the present day.

Sue Sykes first met the band in 1995 when we performed a joint concert with her Oaklands School Band, after which she became our deputy conductor. In 2003 she led the band for a year whilst Bill Gilpin took a sabbatical. This coincided with our first trip abroad to La Spezia in northern Italy in 2004, organised by former band member Sarah Hyde. When Bill decided to retire from the band, Sue took over as full time conductor.

Written in 2009 by Mick Reeder, YCB founder and lifetime president

Ten years later we continue to thrive and there are now over 60 members in the band and after 27 years we have two of the members mentioned above, Gerry Goodwin and Mick Reeder, still playing regularly with us. We also have a good number of members who have been with us for over 20 years and our band conductor Sue Sykes has also been associated with us for over 20 years and has been our full time conductor for 15 years.

We have continued to enjoy band tours abroad and during the past 10 years we have been to Italy again in 2010 and to Paris in 2014.

In 2012 we celebrated our 20th anniversary with a trip to London and performed a concert in the Victoria Embankment Gardens.

We are looking forward to many more years of enjoyment playing music together and entertaining the local community with our concerts.

History updated January 2019