Queen’s Birthday Honour for Bede Wind conductor

We are delighted to announce that our conductor Ernest Young has been named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Ernest, who has led the band since its launch in 1989, has been awarded a British Empire Medal for services to music.

He retired as Music Co-ordinator for South Tyneside Council after more than 30 years’ service with the authority, having previously been Head of Music at Springfield Comprehensive School in Jarrow.

Ernest has worked as an arranger and conductor for both the BBC and ITV and his compositions have featured on ‘Young Musician of the Year’ as well as all major examination syllabuses.

Much of the band’s music is either composed or arranged by Ernest, who has also written more than 150 compositions and arrangements for church choirs.

His characteristically modest response to his well deserved honour was a tribute to others he has worked with over the past five decades.

Ernest said: “I take this award as an acknowledgement of all of the fundraising carried out, and pleasure given,  by the music groups I have had the privilege of conducting over the past 50 years.”