Friary Guildford is delighted to welcome percussionist William Rowling to the Band. From a brass-playing family, William started playing percussion aged 7, mostly on kit, until the age of 13 when he discovered orchestral percussion. When not hitting things, he can sometimes be spotted playing euphonium and trombone (although not at the same time!).
He played with Godalming Youth Band from an early age and joined Godalming Band at the age of 10. In 2016, William was thrilled to win the Best Instrumentalist Award at a scaba contest, beating all the brass players(!), as well as being part of the Best Percussion section. He began studying at the Royal College of Music Junior Department on Saturdays from September 2016 exposing him to a new level of music, a range of different musical activities and enabling him to develop his playing further.
William has been fortunate to have performed at a large number of venues, including at the Royal Albert Hall on two occasions, with Surrey Arts ensembles for The Freedom Game in 2015 and with the BBC Proms Youth Ensemble in 2017 at the Proms. In 2018 William was pleased to gain a place in the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain, and is learning a lot from the experience, both from the tutors and conductor Bramwell Tovey. On his first course, he was honoured to be the percussion winner of the Katie Ogden solo competition.
William has greatly enjoyed playing with Friary Guildford already, being part of the Band’s fourth consecutive win at the London and Southern Counties contest, so qualifying for the National Finals at the Royal Albert Hall, and playing at Blackpool in the Grand Shield. He is looking forward to future challenges and new experiences playing with the Band.