Line-Up revealed for 2024 Brass in Concert Championship
Organisers of the Brass in Concert Championship are pleased to announce the line-up for the 2024 event, set to take place at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music on Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 November.
The flagship Brass in Concert Championship - in association with World of Brass and supported by Banks Group and Yamaha - will feature 11 bands, led by defending champion Foden's. The contest will be compered by the brilliant and evergreen Frank Renton, and will be made up of bands from England, Wales, Scotland and Norway.
Youth Brass in Concert makes its return this year - the contest will feature 8 leading youth bands from across the UK.
Aldbourne Brass Band
Aldbourne Band is a long established Brass Band based in Aldbourne near Marlborough - Wiltshire, originally formed in 1860 by the church organist. The Band’s aim is to provide a consistently high standard of music performances on both the concert and contest platform.
The Band’s competing history goes back before the first World War and during the 1920’s and 30’s achieved great acclaim performing at the Crystal Palace in London. In 1981 the band won the West of England Championships and competed at the National Finals at the Royal Albert Hall as well as representing the area on BBC 2’s “Best of Brass”.
Aldbourne have enjoyed consistently high results at major contests during the 2022 season and are now ranked 12th in the 4barsrest world rankings table. Due to their recent successes, the band have been invited to play at the Brass in Concert Championship for the first time in their history.
Brighouse & Rastrick Band
Brighouse and Rastrick Band is regarded by many as the finest ‘public subscription band’ in the world, and are the current Brass in Concert Champions. The band was formed in 1881 through public donations given by the townsfolk of the adjacent villages of Brighouse and Rastrick, which face each other across the River Calder in West Yorkshire, and captured the hearts of the British public in 1977 when The Floral Dance spent six weeks at No. 2 in the UK singles charts. Today, the band still continues to be supported through public subscriptions and its own fundraising efforts.
The majority of premier band championships have been held by ‘Briggus’. The band became the National Champion Band of Great Britain for the tenth time in 2017, whilst it has also attracted a formidable reputation for highly entertaining concerts for both the general public and brass band connoisseur.
After a 44-year wait, Brighouse and Rastrick were delighted to be crowned the 168th British Open Champions in September 2022 at Symphony Hall in Birmingham and will subsequently represent England at the European Championships in Palanga, Lithuania in May 2024.
Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band
The South Elmsall Village Brass Band can be traced back to humble beginnings in 1884. In 1905, the band was adopted by the local Frickley Colliery, which in turn was to become owned by the Carlton Main Coal Company, and by 1923 the band became known by its present name. During the band’s long and successful history, it has both competed and triumphed at many of the most prestigious competitions in the world. Most notably, the band has held the titles at the British Open, Granada TV Band of the Year, BBC Best of Brass, Grand Shield and British Open Quartet Championships. 2018 and 2019 saw the band achieve its highest ever finishes at Brass in Concert, finishing in 2nd place.
The band has built a reputation as one of the finest concert bands in the country through a combination of innovative programmes, partnered with quality of performance. In 2015, the band took up the position of the feature band of the Gary Clarke Company, with his groundbreaking contemporary dance production and National Theatre award-winning COAL. This position saw the band tour both the UK and Europe throughout 2016, 2017 and 2018. The band has continued this role in Gary Clarke’s sequel, Wasteland, with tour dates throughout 2019 and 2020. With regular appearances on the BBC’s flagship programme Songs of Praise and performances with the world-renowned Rambert Dance Company in 2015 and 2016, the band is currently experiencing one of the most successful periods in its history.
Cory
Cory regularly wins both domestic and international brass band competitions and performs a widely varied repertoire of music at home and abroad to a professional standard. The band seeks to grow its artform with powerful and inspiring experiences for its artists and its audiences.
Proud of its roots, this ensemble also dares to step out of the traditional brass band genre to deliver a tantalising mixture of both blockbusting and beautiful music that amazes and captivates its audiences wherever it performs.
Cory Band, whose home is in Treorchy in the Welsh Valleys, comprises both male and female performers of mixed ages and backgrounds, hailing from near and far, but with one thing in common – the drive to do whatever it takes to keep Cory at the top of its game.
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Flowers Band
Flowers Band, from Gloucestershire, is now in its 55th year of outstanding musical excellence. Flowers is the leading band in the West of England and consistently in the top 10 in the world rankings.
The band was formed in 1968 as a result of the disbandment of the Royal Gloucester Hussars (Territorial Army) Brass Band. After negotiation with the Ministry of Defence, the instruments were purchased and most of the former R.G.H. bandsmen, together with other local players, formed the City of Gloucester Band. The band has held a variety of names via generous sponsorship, including Whitbread in the Community, PolySteel, and most famously Flowers Brewery. In 1998, the brewery closed, but the band kept the name under which it had become so well respected.
Paul Holland is the band’s current Musical Director, and together they continue to re-write their own record books, achieving their highest ever results at the National Championships of Great Britain, British Open and Brass in Concert Championship.
Foden's Band
Foden’s were formed in 1902 by Edwin Foden, originally named The Foden’s Motor Works Band. From these humble beginnings few would have thought they would go on to win 12 British Open titles, 16 National Championships of Great Britain and an unparalleled double hat-trick in 1932, 33, 34 and in 1936, 37 and 38. Since 1902, it has maintained its position as one of the world’s leading bands on and off the contest stage. In 2012 Foden’s won the prized ‘Double’ being crowned the British Open and National Champion, and in 2018 and 2021 reclaimed the National Title.
As well as being successful on the contest front the band has won numerous awards for CD releases, regularly appear on BBC TV and Radio and perform at all the country’s leading concert halls. Around the world Foden’s Band is a trademark that musicians associate with inestimable class and musicianship. In 2022 Foden’s were crowned the North West Area Champion for the 6th consecutive year, placed 3rd at the European Championships, runner-up at the British Open and, in October, retained its National title at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
GUS Band
The GUS Band is a world-famous brass band, based in Northampton, England. Originally known as the Munn and Felton Works Band, it was formed by Fred Felton in 1933 in Kettering, England. Since then, the band has gone on to establish itself as one of the leading bands, with a string of titles to its name and regular appearances at the National Brass Band Championships in the Royal Albert Hall.
The GUS Band is a world-famous brass band, based in Kettering, England. Originally known as the Munn and Felton Works Band, it was formed by Fred Felton in 1933 in Kettering, England. Since then, the band has won many prizes and competitions over the years
Despite the changes in the band’s history brought by time and economic circumstance, one thing that remains the same is the standards and ideals started by the Felton brothers in 1933 when they started their band and proclaimed: “We are going to aim high”.
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The Hammonds Band
Hammonds Band has an impressive pedigree, with an unbroken sequence of 73 years under various names, and roots going back 150 years to when, in 1855, a brass band was formed as one of the amenities for the people of Saltaire. In recent years the band has contested throughout Europe, recorded numerous CDs and performed at some of the best concert venues in the world as the Yorkshire Building Society Band (YBS). Prior to that the band (as Hammonds Sauce Works) enjoyed contest and concert success under the baton of Geoffrey Whitham for nearly 30 years.
Hammonds Band has enjoyed great success on the contest platform. As YBS it was European Champion eight times in nine years and won the British Open and All- England Masters on several occasions. The band was also crowned Yorkshire Champion in 1994, 1999 and 2004.
Under the guidance of Morgan Griffiths, the band is looking forward to a successful future which builds upon the rich heritage of its past.
After two years in lockdown and a period of rebuilding, the band finished 2nd at the 2022 Yorkshire Brass Band Championships and went on to finish in 5th place at the Royal Albert Hall in October.
Krohnengen
Krohnengen Brass Band comes from Sandviken in Bergen. We are one of Norway's leading brass bands and today consist of 31 members between the ages of 13 and 45. A third of the crew is 20 or younger and the average age is 24. This is unique considering the corps' high level.
We want all our musicians to develop and perform at their very best, as part of a social and inclusive community. With musical inspirations and world-class conductors, we are an attractive band to play in, and together we create an organization that our members are proud to be a part of.
KBB is run on a non-profit basis and is fully managed by its own members. All members are at all times involved in the corps' operation, and it is commitment, community, innovation, quality and joy of playing that characterize our work. This is reflected in the prices and feedback we receive from the public and competition judges.
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the cooperation band
The cooperation band are a community brass band, based at the moment in North Lanarkshire. Founded in 1918 as the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society Band, at the SCWS factories in Shieldhall, Glasgow. The band have also been known as the Scottish Co-op Band, The CWS (Glasgow) Band and the Co-op Funeral Care Band. The band are the most successful brass band in Scotland with 35 Scottish Championship titles to its name. The band are also the only Scottish band to win the prestigious National Champions of Great Britain title, something they have done two occasions 1990 & 1996.
The band lost its sponsor of 100 years in 2018 when the Co-op Group moved away from sponsoring the band. At this point the future of the band was looking bleak but with the help of a few current and former players as well as band supporters, support was given in 2019 by the Scotmid co-operative an independent society based in Scotland.
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Tredegar Town Band
The origins of Tredegar Band can be traced to 1849, although it wasn’t until 1876 that it was formally constituted. Since the mid-1970s it has become one of the banding world’s elite performers, as well as multiple winners of major competitions. A self-supporting organisation with a reputation for innovation, it represents the town of its name with pride - literally so with their contribution to the BAFTA Award winning film, Pride. Significant artistic achievements include the world première of Gavin Higgins’ acclaimed Dark Arteries production with the Rambert Ballet at Sadler’s Wells, performances as part of Changing Britain series at London’s Southbank, and in the 70th anniversary celebrations of the National Health Service, becoming the first brass band to perform in The Speaker’s House in the Palace of Westminster.
High-profile concerts have also been given at the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Austria and at the Brucknerhaus as part of the prestigious Linz Brass Festival.
Critical acclaim has come from its world première at Llandaff Cathedral of the Thomas Tallis renaissance masterpiece, Spem in Alium, whilst they have produced a number of award-winning CDs – the most recent a landmark recording of the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams in recognition of the 150th anniversary of his birth, conducted by Martyn Brabbins.
In August of 2022, the band performed to widespread acclaim as part of the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, firstly in the world première alongside the National Orchestra of Wales of Gavin Higgins’ Concerto Grosso for Orchestra and Brass Band and the following evening in its own Late Night Prom.
Elland Silver Youth Band
Elland Silver Youth Band was formed in 1995 by the bands current conductor Miss Samantha Harrison as a way of sustaining Elland Silver Band into the future. The band is based in Elland, a small town, close to Halifax in the Calder Valley and is one of the longest established community organisations within the district.
Today the youth band has some 40 members aged from 11 – 18 years, and is considered one of the countries leading youth ensembles. With a successful Training, Starter and Beginner Band and Percussion Academy it offers music tuition some 90 children per week. Many alumni have progressed to study at Chetham’s School of Music and other leading Music Conservatoires, along with some of the countries finest brass bands.
The band have had renowned success in numerous local & National Competitions and became European Champions in 2017. Building on this success the band has qualified for an invitation to the European Youth Championships for six successive competitions. They have also been formerly recognised locally and nationally for the opportunities presented to young people, gaining a Community Spirit Award for Arts & Culture and the Queens Award for Voluntary Service in 2012.
In May 2023, the band competed in European Youth Brass Band Championships in Malmo, Sweden, where they were placed 3rd against some of Europe’s finest youth bands and in March 2024, placed 3rd in the National Youth Brass Band Championships.
The band are excited to be taking part in the relaunch of the Brass In Concert Youth Championships.
Houghton Area Youth Band
Houghton Area Youth Band was formed in September 1973 for children aged between 6 – 21 years old to meet on a weekly basis to provide opportunities for young people to make music. This is still their main aim; however, they also feel that they provide a safe, happy, responsible well organised 'community' in which the children can learn, rehearse and be valued as an individual, regardless of their background. They don’t have a minimum standard that players must achieve before being able to join the band, everyone is welcome, regardless of their level. New starters are always encouraged to join, and they receive free lessons from the band tutors, the loan of an instrument if needed and a uniform.
They currently have over 35 members in the band who rehearse and perform various concerts around the Northern region, helping fundraise for not only themselves but also for other organisations.
On the contest front, they are the current youth champions at the Beamish Museum March and Hymn Contest, the DBBCA Festival of Brass, and the Stanley Entertainment Contest. At the last Brass in Concert Youth Championships, they were runners up, and were also deemed the most entertaining youth band on the day.
Lancashire Youth Brass Band
Lancashire Youth Brass Band was formed in 1960 with the aim of offering young musicians throughout Lancashire the opportunity to develop their skills under the direction of experienced tutors and conductors. Band members come from schools and colleges all over Lancashire, and the age range is currently 6 – 18.
Members of the band often progress to study music in higher education, leading to musical careers. Many former band members can now be seen playing with some of the country’s finest bands and orchestras.
The Musical Director Helen Minshall has led the band for the last 9 years. Supporting tutors are Gareth Crane, Neil Raisbeck, Trevor Bartlett, Olivia Hurst and Alex Barron.
The band rehearses on alternate Saturdays at St Michael’s School in Chorley. There is an exciting programme of concerts and events throughout the year, including an annual residential course, and the band aims to go on tour every 2 years, most recently to Jersey in July 2024.
The band is developing excellent working relationships with bands of all standards throughout the North West, and in the last few years has performed jointly with Leyland Band, Freckleton Band, Rivington & Adlington Band and Lostock Hall Memorial Band. These events pave the way for young players to progress to adult bands, and to keep this fine British tradition alive for future generations.
Lions Youth Brass
Lions Youth Brass, a vibrant youth organisation located in Sandbach, Cheshire, takes its name from Lions International, a group of clubs the band works closely with to raise funds for various charities and worthy causes.
Dedicated to nurturing the musical talents of young people, Lions Youth Brass offers an exceptional opportunity for aspiring musicians to develop their skills and create lasting memories. Their comprehensive three-tiered system accommodates players of all abilities, providing a supportive environment for learning, performance, and personal growth. This structure not only aims to inspire the next generation of musicians but also fosters lifelong friendships and memorable experiences.
Renowned for their commitment to youth development, Lions Youth Brass has been lauded as “The beacon of youth player development in the UK,” a testament to their impactful work and dedication.
In 2025, the organisation will commemorate its 35th anniversary with a celebratory tour to Belgium and a special reunion concert. This event will feature performances from all three Lions bands, as well as a reunion band composed of former members, highlighting the enduring legacy and community spirit of Lions Youth Brass.
Macclesfield Youth Brass Band
The Youth Band is our most senior band and has around 40 members aged up to 19 years old drawn from areas in and around Macclesfield. The band participates in several competitions each year including The National Youth Brass Band Championships, Whit Friday Marches, The National Youth Entertainment Championships of Great Britain and more.
In recent years the Youth Band has won the Tameside Youth Championship at the Whit Friday Marches three times and in 2017 won the Brass Factor competition held in Holmfirth. The Youth band performs at many concerts in the local community helping to raise money for charity as well as providing excellent playing experiences for our members.
Every two years we enjoy going on tour abroad and have performed in Paris in 2007, Holland in 2009 and 2013, Belgium in 2011, London in 2015, the Isle of Wight in 2017 and 2023, and Belgium in 2019.
Seindorf Beaumaris
Seindorf Beaumaris, located in kthe historic town of Beaumaris, Anglesey, was formed in 1921.
Unlike most brass bands, formed around mining and other industrial communities, Seindorf Beaumaris was formed to entertain tourists arriving by steamboats from Llandudno and Liverpool.
By the early 1980s, a decline in members instigated a drive to go out to the local community and primary schools to inspire the next generation of young musicians.
That link with the area's primary schools continues to this day, and a concentration on nurturing our younger members is core to the band's ethos, with almost 100 members under 20 years old in our Junior, Intermediate and Youth bands.
Seindorf Ieuenctid Beaumaris has become one of Wales' most successful youth bands, winning the National Youth Brass Band Championships of Great Britain, the Youth Brass Band Entertainment Championship of Great Britain, as well as appearing at the Music for Youth Festival at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham.
After winning the 2023 National Eisteddfod of Wales Youth Championship the band had the privilege of representing Wales in the European Youth Championship for the second time.
The band is looking forward to preparing for and performing at Brass in Concert.
Wardle Academy Youth Band
Wardle Academy Youth Band has been in existence for over 30 years and has always been at the forefront of music making at the Academy. The current band is made up of students from years 7 to 13.
The band have enjoyed performing at a vast range of high profile public concerts and events, both locally and internationally. Locally, the band are at the forefront of the community by continually performing for Remembrance Sunday and the Christmas Eve service, an event where they have raised thousands of pounds every year for the Spring Hill Hospice. In June 2022, the band travelled to London to represent the North of England by taking part in the parade for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Competitions have always been very important for the youth band and have seen them win numerous titles over recent years. These titles include Brass in Concert, National Youth Brass Band Championships, European Youth Brass Band championships and Saddleworth Youth Brass Band championships. None of these titles could be achieved without the hard work of the Performing Arts team, parents and members of our band association who all work tirelessly to raise money for all of the bands in school.
Youth Brass 2000
Youth Brass 2000 is a brass band for young people aged 19 and under. Our band is completely independent, in that we have no close association with any adult band, nor do we have any financial sponsors. We welcome players of all standards, from beginner to Grade 8 and beyond. New starters enjoy our warm friendly atmosphere, and very soon find themselves swept along in the tide of fantastic music!
Our band creates a love of music making within its players, and brings out the very best each player can achieve. Several of our former players have gone on to perform with “big name” bands and orchestras, and reflect warmly on their time with Youth Brass 2000.
We are a very busy band, performing many concerts throughout the year, and participate in many contests. Last year we pulled off a “hat trick” of being crowned Champion Youth Band for 3 years in a row! We are delighted to have been invited to perform at The Glasshouse and are very much looking forward to the event.
If you would like to know more about us, take a look at our website at www.youthbrass2000.com – there is lots to see!
