The Sheffield University Wind Orchestra and Brass Band are two of the university's greatest ensembles. Every year, we take a European tour to showcase our skills with three brilliant concerts, with fabulous repertoire from both ensembles.

Any extra donations would be a great help towards our journey to Ghent!

About us:

SUWO

Sheffield University Wind Orchestra (SUWO) is a professionally conducted flagship ensemble with over 50 members! We’ve recently celebrated 25 years of the ensemble, and are hoping to continue to make amazing music.

We play challenging repertoire from all sorts of genres and by composers from across the world. We're a sociable auditioned orchestra, and we perform twice a year in Sheffield to showcase what we work on throughout term as well as three concerts abroad. SUWO celebrates student participation, offering opportunities for student conducting and solos, and more generally pushes everyone’s playing above and beyond in many different ways.

USBB

The University of Sheffield Brass Band (USBB) is an award-winning student-led band with around 40 members from both the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam. Since September of 2024 the band has been led by a team of student conductors, now totalling five, giving opportunities for members to lead and to push their musical skills in new ways.

Each year USBB puts on a Christmas and a Spring concert, both of which raise money for a particular charity - past examples include Sheffield Mind and the Sheffield Music Hub - the latter of which USBB performed a joint concert with in May.

Other major events throughout the year include:

The Unibrass contest - in which USBB won the Shield Section (the first two-time winners), as well as Most Entertaining and Best Soloist awards in the Shield.

Whit Friday - a marching contest entered by bands of all levels across the country (and even from abroad).

And, of course, the joint international tour with SUWO, which for many members is the highlight of the year.

Following 2025's success at Unibrass, USBB were also invited to perform on the concourse for the 48th Annual Brass in Concert contest. This was a great opportunity for the band, made possible by the Unibrass Foundation, to show not just our accomplishments, but the importance that university banding plays in the future of brass banding.