Bob Osborne started playing the cornet at the age of five, and had lessons with Eddie
Williams at the St. Dennis Band in Cornwall. He played in the national finals at
the Royal Albert Hall seven times with the band and was only ten years old when he
first performed at this contest. As their principal cornet, he won the ‘National
Youth Band Finals’ on two occasions with the St Dennis youth band.
Bob studied trumpet at the Royal Academy of Music with Bill Overton and James Watson
and played with the City of London Brass under Geoffrey Brand and the London Collegiate
Brass under Edward Gregson. Bob had a twenty year career as a freelance trumpet player,
mostly with the Saddlers Wells Royal Ballet Orchestra, working with players such
as Maurice Murphy, Malcolm Smith, Bill Houghton, John Wilbraham, Nigel Gomm and Anne
McAneny.
For the past 10 years he has taught brass in schools and has played as second man
down and the principal cornet at Aveley & Newham since 1999.
Stephanie was born into a very musical family and it was perhaps inevitable that
she would play a brass instrument of some kind. Despite her parents involvement in
brass banding, it was not until Stephanie was eleven years old that she began to
have cornet lessons. Stephanie played with a number of bands in Cambridgeshire, but
soon joined Ipswich and Norwich Co-op Band, where her mother played percussion, father
conducted and brother soon followed on percussion. She enjoyed nearly ten years playing
with the band, until a new job lead to her taking time away from banding. A few years
later, an opportunity to join Tilbury Band arose during an orchestral concert. Stephanie
enjoyed playing assistant principal cornet there for three years before joining the
Aveley and Newham Band.
