From Symphony Hall to Stevenage
The most significant period of the brass band calendar is now very fast approaching. Saturday 3rd September sees the best bands in the world go head to head at the 159th British Open at Symphony Hall, Birmingham. The oldest surviving music contest in the world. To see if Chalgrove can pick up any contesting tips we have over fifteen band members going to watch. Philip Wilby’s Red Priest should provide a stern test for even the best bands.
Just a week later on Sunday 11th we will be in concert at All Souls College, Oxford, at the annual open day. This should provide us with an opportunity to give a run through of the 20 minute programme we have prepared for the Wychavon Festival of Brass contest on Sunday 18th September, our first contest as a Second Section band!
Saturday 15th October sees a group of us go to the National Brass Band Championships at the Royal Albert Hall to pick up some more contest guidance from 20 of the UK’s best bands.
Hopefully on the back of a good performance at Wychavon - and possibly a podium finish - we will start putting some hard work into the testpiece we are planning to perform at the Leicester contest on Sunday 27th November. We will be playing Sir Granville Bantock’s - comedy overture "The Frogs of Aristophanes", composed in 1935 and arranged for brass band by Frank Wright for the 1952 National Brass Band Championships won by Fairey Aviation Works conducted by Harry Mortimer.
There is very good reason for playing this overture: it is the set test piece for the 2012 Butlins Mineworkers championship taking place on the weekend of 20th January. This will be our first visit to Skegness and our first official contest as a Second Section band, in one of the biggest and toughest competitions in the country.
Thereafter we will be hard at work in preparation for the 2012 London and Southern Counties area contest taking place at Stevenage on Sunday 18th March. The test piece is yet to be announced and we are not expecting an easy ride, but some professional help from the brass band movement’s best coach, Richard Evans, will definitely help. Maybe we will then have a rest!
