2025 News

With great sadness we announce the passing of Michael Dickson, our principal euphonium player.

Michael passed away peacefully at home on Monday 22 September. He leaves behind family members in the band – his mother Fiona, brother Stuart, niece Mila, nephew Bailey, and father John, the band's conductor.

Michael's funeral will take place on Monday 20 October, 11am at Mortonhall Crematorium, Edinburgh. All are welcome, his family have requested family flowers only, but donations to British Heart Foundation are graciously accepted.

Michael first took up brass aged five, after receiving cornet lessons with Hugh Foster, David James and Caroline Tennant. He later moved to solo euphonium in 1998, helping lead the band to its first Scottish Championship victory. He remained on solo euphonium until his passing.

The Dickson family pass on their thanks to everyone in the banding community who has reached out with condolences and kind words.

Three Youth Bands came together to perform in aid of Cancer Research, St David’s Brass and Penicuik joint Youth Bands and also Galashiels Youth Band.

The concert was held on Sunday 4th May at the North Kirk in Penicuik. 

The audience was treated to a wonderfully diverse concert and it was obvious that the players also enjoyed performing for their guests. 

St David’s and Penicuik started the evening off and were followed by three solo performances from Isla (Galashiels), Jack (Penicuik) and Stuart (Conductor, Galashiels) and were ably accompanied by Graham McDonald on piano. 

After the interval Galashiels played several items, which were then followed by another short set of pieces from St David’s and Penicuik. To round off the evening all three bands gave a rousing rendition of YMCA - even the audience joined in!

A total of over £400 was raised for this worthy cause and we’d like to thank all those who attended and donated raffle prizes to make the evening such a success. 

We were delighted and grateful to receive a most welcome donation of gardening tools recently, courtesy of Inch Nursery, Edinburgh.

As you can imagine, during that time the garden has not been tended and so there is a lot of landscaping work to catch up on. You can be sure that the tools will be put to good use! 

Vogrie Hall has been closed for over four years, but has been undergoing extensive refurbishment and will soon be open again.