Roche Brass

Solo Euphonium - Gavin Knowles

Gavin began his playing career in 1993 with Camborne Youth Band and returned to his roots at Camborne Town Band after a few years playing for Bodmin Town.

In 1996 he was awarded the Albert Chappell Memorial Shield for his talents, becoming the first and only baritone player to have won it.

Gavin spent many successful years at Camborne before first joining Roche Brass in 2016 on Solo Baritone. After taking a 4 year break from playing in 2017, Gav was eventually persuaded to make a return on Euphonium in 2021. 

2nd Euphonium - Gregory Graves

Profile coming soon

Solo Baritone - Rachel Hawkey

Rachel started playing at the age of 5 with St Pinnock Youth Band on cornet and soon moved into the senior band.

After only a couple of years, she moved onto bass where she stayed for another few years and played with St Dennis Youth Band until she herniated a disc in her spine from sporting activities. For this reason she moved to a smaller instrument, the euphonium, where she held the principal euphonium seat for St Pinnock until 2013.

Whilst at St Pinnock, Rachel helped them to achieve promotions from the 3rd section up to the 1st section. From the age of 16 to 19 Rachel also played with the Mount Charles Youth Band and won various solo prizes at local contests.

Rachel left St Pinnock at the beginning of 2013 to concentrate on her studies, and joined Roche Brass where the commitment suits her and her busy lifestyle well, and is now a qualified Midwife.

2nd Baritone - Katie Wenmouth

Katie started learning the baritone at age 7 with Mount Charles Junior Band and later, a short period with Lostwithiel Junior Band alongside this. Eventually, she progressed into the youth band at Mount Charles where she stayed until she was 16.

At the age of 10, Katie began playing with Bugle Band in addition to the youth band to broaden her experience, and enjoyed 3 years there. During this time, she joined the Cornwall Youth Band at age 11, and auditioned and played for the national children’s band in 2012.

At 13, Katie started sitting in on Mount Charles senior band rehearsals and played her first contest with them on second baritone at Yeovil in 2014. Over the next year she gained lots of championship contesting experience and progressed onto 1st baritone in 2015 where she stayed for the next year.

Following this, at 16 Katie joined Bodmin town band where she stayed for an enjoyable 3 years before taking a break from playing whilst she was at university completing her teacher training.

After 3 years out, she finally got back into banding again when she joined Roche in 2022.