Alan Jones
Musical Director: Gravesend Borough Band
Born in Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire Alan joined the school band on Euphonium at the age of 4. After 3 weeks of problems getting it on and off the school bus he took up the trumpet and found the task of getting to and from school much easier. Alan became a member of the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra before joining the army aged 16.
He enlisted into the Band of the Corps of Royal Engineers based in Chatham in 1974 and after training at Woolwich he studied trumpet for one year at the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall.
He then served with the Royal Engineers, reaching the rank of sergeant, and toured all over the world including Hong Kong, Australia and America as well as other exotic places such as the Falkland Islands.
Alan left in 1994 having accepted redundancy in the second cull of military musicians. He pursued a new career in the hospitality industry before moving into the wine trade where he still works.
He has a keen interest in Baroque trumpet music and has no less than 12 trumpets!
Bev Prankard
Conductor: Gravesend Borough Band Training Band
Bev has been playing in concert bands all her life since starting to play the flute at secondary school in London, firstly with her flute teacher’s recommendation at a local school band and then the London Schools Concert Band and the London Schools Symphony Orchestra. When she moved to Kent Bev didn’t want to stop playing so joined Gravesend Borough Band with which she has now been playing flute, sax and clarinet for over 30 years.
Bev has been teaching students aged seven plus for over 20 years and enjoys passing on her love of playing. Music has always been a big part of her life, whether teaching, playing classical music with Il Quartetto Fienile, swing with the Peninsula Big Band, or easy listening with Gravesend Borough Band.