Malcolm Lewis is Musical Director of Shanklin Town Brass Band. He founded the Band in 1993 on moving to the Isle of Wight with his wife Karen. He is a dedicated Brass Band musician with a long career in Banding. His contribution was acknowledged in 2001 when he was awarded a Diploma of Honour in recognition of outstanding contribution to the Brass Band Movement by the Worshipful Company of of Musicians.

Malcolm began his career playing 2nd Euphonium for Ware Brass Band in 1956. At the age of 18 he went to the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall, and discovered a talent for conducting. On leaving the army in 1971 he joined the Tilbury Band, and then moved on to become Musical Director of the Castle Point Brass Band in 1975. At the time the Castle Point Brass Band consisted of a group of young players aged between 6 and 14 rehearsing in the chairman’s living room. Under Malcolm’s leadership, they went on to become a prize-winning band, crowning a decade of achievement with the title of London & Southern Counties Third Section Champions in 1988.

In the same year, the Castle Point Youth Band retained the title of London & Southern Counties Youth Champions, giving Malcolm a remarkable ‘double’. The Band also featured in numerous television appearances, and among the many talented players to pass through the Castle Point ranks were Philip Harper, who began his brass band career under Malcolm’s tutelage, and is now a world-renowned composer of brass band music, and Malcolm’s own son Graham, who now plays Solo Cornet with Redbridge Brass Band, a Championship Section band.

At the end of 1989 Malcolm moved on to become Musical Director of the Harlow Brass Band, rebuilding them from a low point of 12 players to become once more a prize-winning contest band with a full complement of youth and senior players. In 1991 he and his wife Karen moved to the Isle of Wight, and, surprised at the lack of serious brass band presence on the Island, decided to found a band.

On the 19th October 1993, they held their first rehearsal in a church hall, using a few instruments from the walls of local pubs and Malcolm and Karen’s own instruments. Four children turned up to rehearse, and became the founding members of the Shanklin Town Brass Band. The rest is history.

Malcolm works at Lake Middle School, where he is also Musical Director of the brass band.