Our Vision
Our vision is to fill the world with music.
Our Mission
Our mission is to provide affordable music to musicians of all ages and abilities.
Blow & Believe Publications was founded in 1995 as an outlet for the compositional output of Andrew Mackereth. Andrew had been arranging music since his late teens but had very little success in attracting the interest of brass band publishers. It was a friend that admired one of his arrangements for young band that suggested that other bands might also be interested in buying graded music that would appeal to their less experienced musicians.
About Andrew Mackereth
Andrew Mackereth was born in Gateshead, Tyne & wear in 1965. The son of Salvation Army officer parents; he has travelled extensively living in many interesting places including 4 years in Zambia and nine years in Kingston-upon-Hull. It was here that he began his earliest musical training.
In 1982, he returned to his native North-East to enrol on the Certificate in Brass Band Studies Course at Newcastle College of Arts and Technology, studying trombone, euphonium and tuba. In 1984, Andrew gained a place at the Birmingham School of Music to study Trombone and Composition, later studying Percussion and Conducting also. In his fourth year, he won the Bernhard Brown Memorial Composition Prize.
A prodigious writer, to date, more than 300 of his compositions; religious and secular are in print; many frequently feature on the concert programmes of Salvation Army Bands. In September of 2000 he was named Composer-in-Residence to the Coventry City Salvation Army Band.
As a relatively unknown figure in the mainstream brass band world he was delighted to be asked to compose music for the tour of Great Britain by the Melbourne Staff Band (Australia). Contributing amongst others the work: Exaltation which gave its’ name to the tour and became the concert opener.
His reputation as a composer and band trainer has attracted several prestigious overseas engagements including Buenos Aires in 2004 & 2007, Chicago in 2005, 2007 & 2008 and New York in 2008 & 2015.
In addition to his brass band conducting commitments with the Salvation Army, Andrew also conducts a group he co-founded: The Salvation Army Symphonic Wind Ensemble. (www.saswe.com)