Jimmy Kitchen comes from a family of musicians, actors, singers and dancers on his mothers side. Almost all of the family have been professional artists tutored by their father and grandfather Sammy Lowry who was a brilliant euphonium player and committed Christian.
Sammy tutored Jimmy for 2 years before taking him to the local band -
Jimmy joined the 1st Old Boys and progressed to principal cornet player but soon moved to soprano cornet and continued to play this instrument for over 20 years. Jimmy was invited to conduct Reid Memorial band and over a 3 year period achieved considerable success winning all competitions except one where the band was placed second. He resigned from Reid Memorial to concentrate on his soprano playing but the lure of conducting called him to Laganvale. Apart from his debut contest Laganvale were always prize winners over ten consecutive years. This was Laganvale’s most successful period in their history.
Jimmy became the conductor of Newtownards Silver Band in the late nineties and the band has enjoyed success since then winning the section three competitions of the Brass Band League and Northern Ireland Bands Association.
Jimmy has won competitions at every level within Northern Ireland and still has a great desire to make Newtownards Silver Band more successful.