The Royal Marines School of Music have welcomed their latest batch of successful musicians.
Troop 1/16, consisting of 24 ranks, including 12 musicians and buglers, passed out in front of loved ones at the annual celebration.
The parade was inspected by Deputy Commandant General Royal Marines, Brigadier Haydn White ADC RM. The celebrations continued the following day with a concert and Beating Retreat in Portsmouth Guildhall.
Commodore Jeremy Bailey, Naval Base Commander, was in attendance as the concert opened in traditional style, with an overture and march sequence under the direction of Assistant Director of Music Training, Captain P Trudgeon RM.
This included Rocky Point Holiday, an exciting and challenging overture, as well as a Corps of Drums display and an electric violin feature from Musn Cameron Reader.
Musn Reader learnt the violin from scratch when joining in 2016 and since then has shown phenomenal progress throughout training whilst also studying cornet.
Next to be featured were soloists, under the direction of Bandmaster Training, WO1 Bdmr D Prentice RM. The first piece was Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee, a bassoon solo given by Musn Phillip Powell.
As the clock chimed 1700 the Corps of Drums stepped out into the arena and introduced the band with the bugle fanfare.
In traditional style the band stepped off to Sarie Marais, led by Drum Major Training, N Crossley, and began their specular display in front of the Guildhall. This year’s routine featured some new movements for the band, including a cross leading into an inverted chevron and finally a triangle formation for the finale.
