BBC Proms: Composer turned to music to help with Tourette's

A man who turned to music to help his Tourette's syndrome is set to see his work performed by Welsh musicians at the Proms.

Gavin Higgins, from London, developed the condition as an infant and used music to "cool off" when overwhelmed.

"Everything stops when I play music," he said.

Years after his diagnosis for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette's, a piece he composed will be performed at the Royal Albert Hall.

On Monday, his Concerto Grosso will be played by the Tredegar Town Brass Band and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

It will be the first time in over a decade a brass band has performed at the Proms.

But for months, the championship band from Blaenau Gwent, were practising Gavin's work with no idea what they were rehearsing for, with the event kept secret from the players.

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Gavin, a composer in association with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, said he hoped playing at the Proms would make more people fall in love with brass bands and change out-dated ideas.

"Brass bands don't get the recognition or platform they deserve," he said.

At 35 minutes, Gavin's Concerto Grosso is quite challenging, but he said he thought the audience would have their "socks blown off" by the performance.

Gavin said brass bands had been "a really important part of my life"

Growing up, Gavin said music was always in his life as his whole family played in brass bands.

But when he began to develop facial tics and intrusive and repetitive thoughts, he said he relied on it to "cool down".

Gavin, who grew up in the Forest of Dean, was diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome and OCD after a few years of uncertainty.

"When it started to really affect my learning and no-one really knew what was going on and it started to get a bit out of control," he said.

"But everything stops when I play music."

Gavin said music became a form of self-therapy and he started playing more, with it eventually becoming his job.

"Composing has become a really important creative outlet for me and certainly a way of calming down my OCD and my invasive and repetitive thoughts," he said.

"I can lose myself in it for hours. It is not only something I love to do as a job but something I need to do for me."

Tredegar Brass Band were featured in the Bafta winning Welsh film Pride

He said Concerto Grosso was "a piece I have been thinking about for a long time but I just didn't have the skills at that point so I just ended up shelving it".

He described it as a celebration of music "made by the working classes and that is at the very heart of the British musical landscape".

He said he wanted to bring "a Welsh band together with a Welsh orchestra in a big celebratory work" and approached the Proms about performing at the Royal Albert Hall.

"I have been working with Tredegar for over 10 years and they really are one of the best bands in country.

"They play my music really well so there was really no other choice of band for this project and we are just really happy we can show these guys off on the stage."

He said lot of people seem to still have an "old idea of what bands are" and do not realise how modern and innovative they can be.

"They think about the Hovis advert, Terry Wogan and the Floral Dance but bands are very different to that," he said.

"The standard of playing is incredibly high despite the essentially amateur status as they are essentially professionals doing it just because they love doing it."

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He said he hoped this performance would allow more people to see brass band music as "it doesn't get much bigger than the Proms or the Albert Hall and I think the audience is going to have their socks blown off".

He said he also wants to show how accessible the music was to people, regardless of how much money you have.

"Tredegar is kind of in the middle of nowhere, the band room itself is sort of in the middle of nowhere tucked away, it is quite a deprived area but it is one of the worlds best brass bands," he said.

Tredegar Brass Band is one of the most well-known and decorated in the UK, featuring in ballets, Pride marches and even in films, having a cameo in Pride - the story of the LGBTQ people's efforts in the miners' strikes.

Ian Porthouse is the band's conductor and Leanne Porthouse plays the cornet

But solo cornet player Leanne Porthouse said performing at the Proms would be a massive moment.

"We are quite used to walking out on the Albert Hall stage because we do contests there, but I think this will be quite a different feeling event," she said.

"I don't think we'll even understand what the atmosphere is going to be like, it's going to be immense."

She added that Gavin's music was "always challenging but we embrace it".

"We like to think we are quite ground-breaking with the projects we take on, we are very innovative as a band and we get approached from lots of different places.

"It is important for everyone to see a brass band on a different platform and on a wider scale and it is important that we are making that move and pushing the movement forward. We are so proud to be leading the way."

Conductor Ian Porthouse said he hoped the Proms helped with recognition for the band.

He said: "I think the biggest difference is if i say to my neighbour I'm playing at the national championships, they'll be like 'great ', but if you say we're playing at the Proms they know exactly what it is.

"For a band to do that it is the highest level you can get to. This is our chance to show at the Proms what brass bands can really do.

He described this performance as a "huge step in the brass band classical music repertoire".

The Proms had to be kept under wraps for a while and Ian said he struggled not telling members what they were training for.

"In the early stages when we were approached we couldn't say anything to the band and we had to keep a weekend free," he said.

Then he said members began to ask "could it be the Proms?" and he thinks he "may have given it away".

• The performance can also be heard on BBC Radio 3 from 19:00 BST on Monday.

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