Emotional test piece for Open Championships
THE 166th British Open Brass Band Championships will be held at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, on Saturday, September 8 and the test piece will be A Brussels Requiem, which was commissioned by Brass Band Oberosterreich in Austria and was first played at the 2017 European Championships in Ostend.
Composed by Belgian composer Bert Appermont, the music deals with all the emotions experienced at the time and later consequences of the tragic terrorist attacks that occurred in the Belgian capital in March 2016 when 32 people died.
Bert Appermont’s music is performed worldwide and has been recorded by, among other orchestras, the BBC Philharmonic.
There will be a strong European presence at this year’s British Open Brass Band Championships as current British Open Champions, Valaisia Brass Band from Switzerland, will be defending their title along with Eikanger-Bjorsvik, who are European Champions, Norwegian Champions and 2017 Champions of Brass In Concert, and they will be hoping to add the British Open title to their conquests.
However, both these bands will be aware of the very strong competition that they will encounter from the two inform bands from Wales, Cory and Tredegar!