Claire Kitchen had something of a baptism of fire when she joined SCWB in June 2006 as we were then beginning our summer season of bandstand gigs. She rose to the challenge immediately and with great enthusiasm, a characteristic that was ever present during her tenure as Music Director. Themed concerts at the Turner Sims Concert Hall (A Night At The Movies) and the Plaza Theatre (America) soon followed as well as a debut Christmas performance at St Luke's Church in Winchester.
When she joined the band, Claire was a member of the Recruiting Team for HQ Army Music at the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall. In 2007 she successfully applied to undertake the Band Masters course which she began in September of the same year; however, it soon became clear that the demands of her job prevented her from giving 100% committment to SCWB so it was with some reluctance that she resigned her position.
Since leaving the band, Claire has successfully completed the Bandmaster Course and was appointed Warrant Officer in The Band of The Royal Corps of Signals based in Blandford Forum. The next few years saw her serve with The Band of the Prince of Wales's Division in Tidworth where she took the band to Afghanistan as part of Op. HERRICK. In more recent times Claire has been back with HQ Army Music in the role of Training and Testing, and also HQ Regional Bands in an Ops Training role. Whilst work life leaves little time for conducting and performing, Claire still enjoys attending concerts and keeping up with musician friends.
Claire is married to Guy and has a young son, Ethan, with whom she shares her new hobby of playing the ukulele.
2005 brought with it a new conductor for SCWB when Richard Harvey took up the baton (despite best efforts to join the 'South Carolina Watermelon Board'!). At the time of joining Richard was a musician with the Royal Marines Band Service in Portsmouth but having completed the Bandmaster Course at the Royal Marines School of Music he was seeking an outlet for his newly found skills.
Richard soon made the position his own and the band quickly adapted to his style. His eighteen months with SCWB saw another exchange trip to Bavaria, a Trafalgar Spectacular at the Plaza Theatre in Romsey and an exciting debut for the band at the Turner Sims Concert Hall in Southampton. Unfortunately the Turner Sims concert was to be Richard's swan song as 2006 saw him drafted to the Britannia Royal Naval College band in Dartmouth.
In 2007 Richard was promoted to Captain Royal Marines and appointed a Music Director. Over the next six years he ran three RM bands, studied for his Master's degree and served on a six-month operational tour to Afghanistan as the Adjutant of the United Kingdom Medical Group. In 2012 Richard became the first member of Her Majesty's Royal Marines to be admitted a Fellow of the Royal Schools of Music before retiring from the Service after a full military career in 2013. Over the next two years he worked extensively within the local musical scene in Devon - holding Musical Director positions, performing masterclasses and workshops with local schools, as well as playing trombone for the Exeter Symphony Orchestra.
In 2015 Richard was appointed Bandmaster of the prestigious and historic Royal Hospital School in Suffolk - only the sixth incumbent of the role since 1906 - and over the next three years was responsible for running the concert band, parade band, brass ensemble, orchestra and big band. He is also very active as a freelance trombonist. In 2017 Richard enjoyed a six- month tenure as the musical director of the Suffolk Concert Band, and is due to re-join them in October 2019.
Richard has performed at the Royal Albert Hall as a soloist and twice as a conductor at the Mountbatten Festival of Music. He composed The Forces Anthem to Her Majesty which was performed live on television by over 3,000 service personnel in the presence of HM The Queen on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee celebrations, and his original composition Am Sailing to Westward, which depicts in words and music the fateful story of HMS Trinidad, was performed live at the Mountbatten Festival of Music 2012. His most recent composition, Sleep, Beneath the Wave, was written to commemorate the 101 former pupils of the Royal Hospital School who lost their lives at the Battle of Jutland.
Richard currently resides in Suffolk with wife, Steph, and their 3 children.
When Peter Hyland took charge in 1994, SCWB still in its infancy as a wind band - up until this time it had been a conventional brass band with roots in Redbridge Concert Brass. In 1996 it formally become known as the Southampton Concert Wind Band.
During a ten year tenure, Peter and the band broke new ground by recording their first CD and giving regular performances at the Plaza Theatre in Romsey. Peter was also responsible for beginning a highly successful association with the Bavarian wind band Harmoniemusik in Welden, Bavaria which to date, has seen four exchange trips. His decade as Music Director saw both the membership and the reputation of the band grow substantially, transforming SCWB into a well established concert band in the local area.
In December 2004 Peter decided it was time for him to put down the baton and explore new opportunities away from the band. On retiring he discovered that other recreations tend to extend in proportion to the time available to them! A fishing reel presented to him on his leaving has been instrumental in keeping the larder topped up with trout whilst pursuing one of his other loves, that of fly fishing, both locally and in Dorset. This, together with gardening, eating well and listening to his and his wife Honor's ever expanding library of classical music and jazz, tends to keep him out of trouble most of the time!