John Berryman – Adjudicator 2012
Well its a beautiful morning here in Bugle. Lets hope for similar in two weeks time! Todays blog is about one of this years adjudicators, John Berryman. We are very much looking forward to welcoming John back to his native Cornwall on June 16th.
John Berryman A.L.C.M , L.T.C.L is a native of Cornwall and started his playing career with Camborne Town Band at the age of eight. He was Principal Cornet of The National Youth Brass Band for several years before joining the Munn and Felton Works Band at the age of eighteen. Within a year he had been appointed their Principal Cornet and went on to establish a reputation as one of the finest players in the Brass Band world, winning three National Titles with this band when it was known as the G.U.S (Footwear) Band.
In 1969, John went back to Cornwall to start a conducting career with Bodmin Town Band, eventually moving on to Grimethorpe Colliery Band to work with Elgar Howarth. He returned to conduct G.U.S after ten years in charge of the William Davis Construction Group Band, and led them to the BBC ‘Band of the Year’ trophy and many other prizes.
John was employed by Northamptonshire County Council as a brass tutor and was responsible for the County Youth Brass Band, which toured America, Canada, Norway, Austria and Yugoslavia.
In 1987, John was awarded The Iles Medal of The Worshipful Company of Musicians of the City of London for his outstanding services to Brass Band music.
In February 2008, the Vituosi G.U.S Band invited John to rejoin the band and asked him to become its Professional Conductor once more. In this very special 75th anniversary year, he was delighted to accept. Shortly after his appointment, in fact just seven rehearsals later, John took the band to the Midlands Area Brass Band Championships where the band qualified for the final of the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain at the Royal Albert Hall, London. Since then, under his direction, the band has been in resurgent form, regaining its place at The British Open and giving prize winning performances at both the National Championship Finals and The Masters.