RICHARD Butler has a great passion for teaching music.

So much so, he was given a MBE for services to music education in 2018’s New Year’s honours list.

The assistant headteacher and subject leader performing arts at Ulverston Victoria High School also landed the Classic FM Secondary School Music Teacher of the Year Award in 2003.

Come Saturday, March 2, Richard and the internationally renowned UVHS Wind Band share the Coronation Hall stage with the Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines, regarded as the finest military band service in the world. Under the respective batons of Richard and Captain Steve Green, the marine band’s two-day sojourn to Ulverston (March 1-2) culminates in a spectacular massed band finale in the Coro on the Saturday night. Richard says that the band’s visits have become an almost annual affair: “Indeed, Ulverston High is the only school to be partnered with the Band Service, and we will be welcoming several former students who are now enjoying successful careers in the Marines Band Service, back to The Coro.”

The first section of the Saturday night concert will feature the school’s highly acclaimed Wind Band, which will be preparing for an eight-day tour to Italy in July. After that, the Royal Marines Band, rated as the top military band in the world, will perform a set on its own, including a display from the ever popular Corps of Drums; the final section will feature 35 of UVHS’s senior musicians joining the marines to form a massed band.

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