Some quite incredible achievements both in terms of service to a Band and longevity. I wonder about the many Pro’s and Con’s of one person being a Band’s Conductor for extended periods, but (IMHO) that’s not for this thread and maybe for a separate one instead.
What would be interesting here (well to me at least) is seeing a gender split; Brass Band membership has changed a lot since when I was a Lad and the fair sex now contribute enormously - without the Ladies many bands would be shut. I’ve no idea of who are and for how long the longest serving Lady MD’s have been conducting, but I’d have thought that 25 years would be a reasonable start point for consideration. Might it be possible to somehow recognise/celebrate the Ladies too?
Interesting question. Female mass membership of brass bands is not something that long established - as we've covered in (occasionally bafflingly contentious) threads here in the past, gender balance in banding is even today, still 'working its way through the system' - it's rare to find a band with more female than male members, even though statistically we'd expect approximately half to be so. And there also we've noted that as one ascends the banding tree, the balance even today still grows further out of whack - female MDs are much rarer than male, even in this arguably enlightened year of 2020...
A long-serving MD on the kind of scale of years celebrated in this list must by chronological necessity have been in post since an era of rather different gender politics. So we should expect to be picking from the smaller pool of modern female MDs anyhow, and further, to diminish that pool substantially through the greater difference seen at career outset. The longest spans will be shorter, in short.
I'll start you off with our example - Catherine Underwood conducted Kidlington Concert Brass 1994-2010, for 16 years. She still conducts the Sponne School Brass Band in Towcester, which she set up in 2002 - 18 years so far. Impressive records of service both, but not of the gargantuan span seen at the top of the main list. 26+ years for total wagging career so far.
The next band and people that my thoughts turn to are East London Brass and the Murrills, Sue and Jayne, mother and daughter. Sue conducted them (as Waltham Forest Co-op) 1983-2000, 17 years, and Jayne since 2007, 13 years and counting. Sue conducted Hexham Brass in Northumberland until she sadly passed away in 2016 - total wagging career at least 33 years.
Um... Mareika Gray has a career of 11 years so far, not as long as I'd suspected.
Let's go historical:
Betty Anderson - total career 1958-95 with bands around Leicester, but no particularly long span with any. At least 37 years total.
Barbara Stone - total career only 1972-9, with Swindon and Hanwell, was expecting longer
Elizabeth Lumb set up the band at Highfield School in Bradford in 1945. I know she was still taking it in 1950 - but I suspect she carried on doing so quite a bit longer than that. Anyone know?
Across the Atlantic, Jessica Sneeringer has been taking the Central Ohio Brass Band since 2005 - 15 years so far.
Found a new front-runner... Anita Cocker-Hunt conducted the Cincinnati Brass Band 1993-2017 - 24 years.
In South Australia, Veronica Boulton is recorded taking both Marion City and Warriparinga since 2005 - 15+ years.
Over the state line in Victoria, Melina Benger has been taking the Croydon Citizens' Band since 2001 - 19+ years.
Also in Victoria, Phillipa Edwards took A Grade band Footscray-Yarraville 2004-18 - 14 years.
A quick flick through recent NZ Nationals results turns up no long-serving women MDs at all. I'm sure there must be some.
Haven't looked at either Switzerland or Scandinavia - there must be some good examples there too.
So, my quick and unthorough survey here turns up the following marks to beat:
Total band conducting career: Betty Anderson, 37 years at least.
Longest span conducting one band: Anita Cocker-Hunt, 24 years.
As with the main list, I suspect that the leading examples are often going to have been working away quietly in a local way without drawing much attention. Let's have TMP's best obscure examples to raise these bars...
