Andy Wooler

Andy Wooler MBA(Open)

Musical Director, Mid-Sussex Brass
Musical Director, The Classic Dance Band

Andy Wooler was appointed as Director of Music, Mid-Sussex Brass in February 2000 following a time as Resident Conductor of Uckfield Concert Brass where he worked alongside the bands then Musical Director, Kenneth Dennison.

He started playing at the age of 10 with the now defunct Pevensey Silver Band on tenor horn but soon changed to cornet. Pevensey Silver went on to become Sussex Brass (Hastings) with whom Andy played a variety of positions from Principal Cornet, Soprano and even Kit Percussion!. Andy went on to study at the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall, under the late Ian Macintosh, son of Britain's first cornet hero, Jack Macintosh.

Following 6 years with the Band of 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, he returned to Sussex and resumed playing with brass bands, by now having graduated onto Soprano Cornet. He joined what was then Uckfield (Industries) Band on Soprano and held this position until his appointment ten years later as Resident Conductor. By this time, he had been deputy conductor for a number of years and had also conducted the Hangleton Band in Hove plus an extremely short spell at Horsham Borough!.

In addition to his work with Brass Bands, Andy is the Musical Director of "The Classic Dance Band" and is also much in demand as a trumpet player. His credits include appearances on the "Wogan" show with the Paul Turner Big Band and a 7 year stint as lead trumpet with The Tony Strudwick Orchestra.

govan.jpg (18896 bytes) Andy appearing with part of the infamous "Govan Basement Orchestra"

The keyboard player is Nigel Simmons with Paul Stenning on Drums


More recently, Andy was part of the world's first broadcast of a brass band over the Internet and conducted Uckfield Concert Brass on "The National Lottery Live".

andypic.jpg (16993 bytes) One of the earliest photo's of Andy (second from left) shown here with some other pupils of  Tim Lord (who taught him to play).

This photo dates from 1967.
(courtesy Jonathon Chappell)

Andy Wooler is a member of the National Association of Brass Band Conductors

In addition to his work with Brass Bands, Andy plays trumpet with and is Chairman of the Sussex Symphony Orchestra. He participated in the recently released  recording of the works of local Brighton composer, Paul Carr on the Claudio Label. The Orchestra performs regularly with major soloists and conductors including Sir Charles MacKerras, Mark Andrew-James, Katherine Jenkins & Guy Johnson to name but a few. I can't put it better than this cooment from a well known critic:

"I look forward to hearing this orchestra again soon…." Denby Richards, Columnist for ‘Musical Opinion’ Magazine


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Andy's arrival at Mid Sussex Brass has led to several prizes being won by the band:

Looking to the future, Andy hopes to continue this winning trend as a conductor with Mid-Sussex Brass whilst also continuing to be an active members of the Sussex Symphony Orchestra.

Professionally, Andy is the Learning Programme Manager for Legal & General Assurance Society and is a regular speaker on technology to support and deliver life long learning and knowledge sharing.

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page last updated: July 07, 2006 20:15:41