James Screaton has been playing the cornet since the age of 10 and was quickly introduced to the world of brass bands when he joined the Enderby Junior Band. In his ten years with the Enderby organisation James advanced through the three main brass bands and was appointed principal cornet of the first section Senior Band in late 2011, a position he held for just over a year.
In 2010 James was awarded a position to study music at The Birmingham Conservatoire under the expert tutelage of Richard Marshall and Ian Porthouse. In his four years at the Conservatoire James played in all of the main college ensembles. His highlights include playing Soprano and Principal cornet in the Conservatoire brass band, performing as a soloist playing the Torstein Aagaard, Nilsen Concerto for Cornet and Brass Band and on two occasions playing first cornet with the Symphony Orchestra for their performances of Symphony Fantastique and Messiaen’s Turangalila Symphonie. James also entered several competitions while at college, the pinnacle being reaching the final of the Conservatoire Brass prize, one of only a few cornet players to ever do so.
James joined GUS in 2015 on assistant principal cornet, getting the chance to sit next to and learn from the likes of James Fountain, Thomas Fountain and Ben Godfrey as well as filling in on the end chair when needed. During the 2020 Covid lockdowns James took on the challenge of helping to create the audio tracks for some of the bands early lockdown videos which can be found on the Media page. James took up the Principal cornet chair full time in late 2022 and helped to lead the band to success at the 2023 midlands area contest in Corby and 2023 Dr Martins contest.
James is a long time attendee of the Wessex summer school first taking part a delegate in 2006 and after 13 courses was very pleased to be asked to be part of the music staff on the course in 2022.
