©Kris Symonds 2018
All rights reserved
Telephone: 01594 562593
07990 542614
Brass & Woodwind Instrumental Tuition
Kris started her musical career playing the tenor horn with the local brass band at the age of ten. About a year later, Kris moved to cornet to help the band overcome a shortage of players and found her niche. Kris had weekly brass lessons at home and was entered for Associated Board exams by her teacher, just like her own students today! Barely 5 years after picking up an instrument, and before she was 16 years old, Kris passed her ABRSM Grade 8 Cornet and Grade 8 Trumpet examinations. She gained valuable performing experience playing solo cornet for several local Championship section brass bands as well as developing her trumpet playing with community and county youth orchestras.
Kris studied for a Bachelor of Music degree at the Birmingham Conservatoire specialising in performance and conducting and was tutored by Guy Woolfenden, Steven Mead, Phillip McCann, Roger Webster and Andy Culshaw. Whilst in Birmingham she played for the Conservatoire Wind Band and Brass Band, played Principal Cornet for the Shirley Band, soprano cornet and flugel horn for the City of Birmingham Brass Band, formed her own brass quartet and quintet and played lead Trumpet for numerous musicals including West Side Story, Paint Your Wagon, Oklahoma! and South Pacific. After graduating in 1996, she worked for Normans Educational services as a peripatetic Brass and Woodwind teacher.
In 1997 Kris returned to the Forest of Dean to be nearer to her family and to set up her private teaching practice and was soon recruited by Gloucestershire Music Service as a brass and woodwind peripatetic teacher, a position she held with distinction until 2012 when she left to further her own teaching practice.
Kris was also Director of Gloucestershire Music’s Forest of Dean Area Wind Band for fourteen years and under her direction the band became Platinum award recipients at the National Concert Band Festival Finals and participated in the National Festival of Music For Youth at Symphony Hall, Birmingham on numerous occasions. As the centre expanded under Kris’s tutelage she created new groups for the students to further develop, including a Junior Wind Band, First Access Guitars, a Starter Band, an Area Youth Brass Band, Jazz Band, Woodwind Ensemble and Percussion Ensemble. In 2014, following another outstanding performance by the Forest of Dean Area Wind Band at the National Festival of Music For Youth, Kris left her position with Gloucestershire Music in order to take up the role of Centre of Advanced Training (CAT) Manager for South West Music School.
Kris has always been keen to “put back into the local community” and has been heavily involved with many local brass bands, both as a player and a educator. Most recently Kris was heavily involved with Pillowell Silver where she played soprano cornet and principal cornet, winning numerous solo prizes for her musicianship on the contesting stage. She also contributed to the overall success of the band by teaching many junior and adult members of the band in order to develop their ensemble skills and thus gain promotion out fourth tier of banding into the Third section. Kris ran the organisation’s training and starter bands and adopted her usual high standards of tuition here also -
Kris is currently leading Forest of Dean Brass with the development of a new Training Band for their organisation and is in consultation with a number of other local bands regarding similar projects. She remains an active gigging musician, leading and directing the brass ensemble “A Blast of Brass” at Weddings, Charity Events, Concerts and Corporate Functions.
Teaching is Kris’s passion and her record of achievement with her students is exemplary, with success being built on understanding and enjoyment.
