Roger Thorne

Roger was born in Shrewsbury in 1958 and started his musical career at the age of eleven, playing cornet, under the tuition of Jim Edmunds and the late Billy Summerhill.

Following his early success in playing and conducting, it was in composing music that Roger found his forte and, to date, has completed well in excess of four hundred arrangements and compositions for an array of instrumental ensembles.

In 1992, Roger was commissioned to compose a march for the Mellingen Brass Band from Switzerland and in 1994 was commissioned to write a commemorative piece for the 50th Anniversary of the Liberation of Fismes, which Wem Jubilee Band attended and played.

One of Roger’s major works, ‘Jersey Fantasy’, was short listed by the National Brass Band Contesting Council in 1995 as a test piece for the National Championships of Great Britain.

The following year, he gained tremendous success by coming 5th in an International Composers Competition, organised by the Society for the Promotion of New Music - again with ‘Jersey Fantasy’.

Roger has also succeeded in winning the Herefordshire Music Festival’s Composers Competition on no less than six consecutive occasions.

1997 saw the first commission from brass bands who had been awarded funds from the National Lottery. His first piece ‘Concert Celebrations’  was commissioned by Wem Jubilee Band, he then followed that with music for Cricklade Band (Swindon), Shipston Band (Warwickshire) and Rippondon Motors Band (Halifax).

In 1998 Roger launched his own Music Publishing Company, “Thorne’s Music”, and is constantly producing new compositions and arrangements for the commercial market.

His most recent success, a dramatic arrangement of the stirring music from the film Zulu, has been played by bands from as far afield as Ireland, Canada, Switzerland, America and Australia, and has featured in several winning performances at major brass band entertainment competitions.  

In 2000 the Rotary Club of Wem honoured Roger with the Rotary International Paul Harris Fellowship. This Fellowship is only awarded to six individuals world-wide every year and Roger’s award was in appreciation of his services to the community, as he has worked tirelessly for many years to put the town of Wem into the spotlight of musical excellence. Roger has also been made an Honorary President and Composer in Residence of the Cricklade Band.

Roger is in great demand as a composer, arranger and teacher and regularly gives lectures and demonstrations in the art of brass playing and composition. He now spreads his experience widely over the brass band movement and travels extensively as a band trainer, professional conductor, comperé and adjudicator.

Roger is also an accomplished landscape artist, and regularly exhibits his beautiful oil paintings all over the British Isles. He is married to Salliann, has two lovely children, Rebecca and Thomas and still resides in Shrewsbury.