Bedfordshire Youth Percussion Ensemble

The Bedfordshire Youth Percussion Ensemble (BYPE) is a relatively new county group with membership drawn from schools throughout Bedfordshire.

It plays a tremendous variety of music from Latin, classical, popular, ethnic & jazz through to modern atonal compositions. Our concerts are guaranteed to be fun and entertaining brimming with energy and enthusiasm.

March 27th has seen BYPE playing alongside Bedfordshire Youth Theatre at the Millennium Dome in a performance of ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh’. It was a quick fire, non stop theatre experience with a truly epic pagan feel.

In May BYPE will have a very busy time with performances at the Bedford River Festival and Luton Carnival. BYPE is also taking part in a workshop at the Stables, Wavendon (the theatre at the home of John Dankworth and Cleo Laine) with Dave Hassell who is one of the country’s most respected Latin percussion experts. There is a large scale concert planned for the end of May too.

In order to provide BYPE with young players of the required standard a younger ensemble has been formed called Bedfordshire Youth Training Percussion Ensemble (BYTPE). BYTPE is taking part in the regional finals of National Festival of Music for Youth in Northampton. BYTPE will also join BYPE in various concerts.

It is hoped to form an even younger group called BYPE Juniors in the near future thus ensuring Bedfordshire Percussion goes from strength to strength.