The Band was delighted to play at the Wyvern Hall, Sittingbourne in November 2007 with Derick Kane as our guest soloist.
Born in Hamilton, Scotland 46 years ago, Derick comes from a very committed Salvationist family – his father, now in his 70’s, was, and still is a trombone player in the local Salvation Army Band and his mother was a member of the local Salvation Army Corp songsters. He began playing on the tenor horn at the age of 8 and made the lifelong move onto the euphonium at the age of 9.
Derick made his performance debut at the age of 10 at the 1966 Scottish Congress playing the solo “The Priceless Gift†– he says, “It went OK I think, although I was very nervous!†From then on however, his progress was rapid and in 1976 he moved to London where he worked at the Trade Headquarters of the Salvation Army in the department that stocked the organisation with supplies of all sorts around the world.
“I was lucky enough however to join the International Staff Band that year after a vacancy arose in the euphonium section. I was invited for an audition with Bandmaster Colonel. Ray Bowes and had to undergo a quite strenuous audition of sight-reading, part playing, solos etc. Once again, I was lucky enough to be accepted!â€
Luck shouldn’t come into it, as Derick was appointed Principal Euphonium of the ISB – a hot seat if ever there was one, and so begun a 26 year period of playing with one of worlds best brass bands.
His standard of playing however has been universally recognised as of the highest class for many, many years. In 1991, he was awarded the British Bandman’s prestigious “Euphonium Player of the Year†award, which was marked with a special presentation at Fairfield Hall in Croydon as part of the ISB’s centenary celebrations.