With thanks to the Northern Regional Brass Band Trust’s committee of intrepid brass band experts, Beamish Museum in the North East is reaping the benefits from a social heritage experiment – the Beamish Brass Ensemble! The ensemble consists of Beamish members of staff who came together to learn from scratch following heritage “have a go” open rehearsals in the museum’s reconstructed Hetton band hall. The group have now been playing together for six months and made their debut performance during the interval at the recent march and hymn tune contest. The trust further supported the ensemble at a weekend workshop at the museum - it was quite an experience as the event was open to museum visitors, with many intrigued tourists wandering in! Susan, the Trust’s secretary and a wizard at making things happen, also presented a talk on brass at the Volunteer's coffee morning in July as part of the plan to collect more new recruits. Susan said, ”We really want to thank the team at Beamish for their support of local bands, and I’d also like to say a thank you to Rachel at Brass Bands England – it’s great to be able to discuss our ideas with her.” In further brass-Beamish partnerships, four members of local Lanchester band are at Beamish every fortnight for the visitors have a go - through that they’ve gained three learners and an accomplished euphonium player! The Come and Play sessions run each fortnight at Beamish. “It’s paying off and it's fun” Lanchester Band.