Lee Bathgate, principal cornet with Kingdom Brass, lives in Dunfermline. He is married with two sons, and works as a Senior Software Engineer for a small development company in Dunfermline.

Lee started playing cornet at the age of seven under the tuition and guidance of the late Andrew Lindsay. He began his solo career soon afterwards and gained considerable recognition throughout Scotland winning nearly all major junior solo events. His record of 31 wins out of a possible 32 for Regional Qualifiers,Scottish Junior titles and School titles from 1979 - 1987 has yet to be equalled. What makes this achievement even more impressive is that his main competitors throughout this period were Laurie Gargan (Principal Trumpet with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and Singapore Philharmonic Orchestra) and the unquestionably talented soloist and conductor, Russell Gray. He also managed to pick up a number of senior titles during his earlier years, but there was only one title that had eluded him throughout his solo career and that was the Scottish Solo title, however, he finally managed to secure that in 2000.

From a banding perspective, Lee started on 3rd cornet at Lochgelly Brass Band at eight years old and quickly moved through the ranks until he took over the reigns of principal cornet at the age of 13 while the band were still in the championship section. Lee stayed in the top cornet seat until 1995 when he moved to Whitburn and took up the position of bumper-up. After a two year spell covering a few performances at the Royal Albert Hall, Lee was finally offered the position of principal with Whitburn but declined in preference of returning back to Fife as principal cornet with the Kelty and Blairadam Band. In 1999 when Kelty joined with the Cowdenbeath, he relished the opportunity of leading the cornet section with a band that had the potential to become a major force in the banding world.

One area of banding that Lee would like to return to is tutoring and conducting. While at Lochgelly, Lee tutored a number of Junior soloists and also became involved with conducting quartets and Lochgelly Junior Band. He had considerable success with many of the young players, producing junior Fife and Scottish solo winners, and gaining accolade for achievements with the youth ensemble. He got a taste for inspiring the young musicians and helping them realise their real potential. With the formation of the Kingdom Brass Youth Academy, Lee is once again passing on his experience and knowledge to the next generation of brass players.

Other Musical Interests

Lee says he's desperate to buy a Piano and learn how to play it along with the rest of his family. As far as musical taste goes, he claims to have a fairly catholic taste (and when he says catholic, i'm sure he's not meaning in a religious vain).

Favourite Testpieces

Revelation, Checkmate and Diversions on a Bass Theme.

Favourite Performance

"I played at a regional qualifier when I was 14 where I thought my accompanist, the late Wilma Watson, wasn't going to make it in time for my performance and she had my only copy of the piano music. She turned up with minutes to spare and I was that relieved that I just went on stage and played a blinder. I came of stage and couldn't remember a single moment of the performance except for the first and last notes. I was that relaxed that I must have went into automatic pilot. I made the adjudicator's day because his final comment was "superlatives fail me" and he gave me 99/100 with the closest competitor about 10 points behind. I've tried ever since to recreate the same combination of events but it has never happened again. I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed."