Quintet pick up £10,000 prize at inaugural contest
SOME 13 of the top brass quintets were competing at the Inaugural Philip Jones International Brass Ensemble Competition at the Royal Northern College of Music at Manchester on July 18.
Brass quintets involved were: All Saints Brass (Manchester), Apollo Brass (Germany), Aura Brass (UK), Billi Brass Quintet (Italy), Cobalt Brass (UK), Connaught Brass (UK), Flower City Brass (USA), Local Brass Quintet (France, withdrew), London Metropolitan Brass (UK), RET Chamber Brass (Austria), Skyline Brass (UK), Urban Brass (Germany), W1 Brass (UK), Zagreb Brass Quintet (Croatia). The top six from the Thursday went on to play on the Saturday and were: All Saints Brass (UK), Apollo Brass (Germany), Connaught Brass (UK), London Metropolitan Brass (UK), RET Chamber Brass (Austria) and Skyline Brass (UK).
The winner was Connaught Brass (UK), second was RET Chamber Brass from Austria and third was London Metropolitan Brass.
The competition was created by Ursula Jones and John Miller with the aim of showcasing the musical excellence of the finest quintets in the world.
The make-up of the Connaught Quintet was Aarm Akugbo and Harry Plant on trumpet, Robyn Blair, horn, Chris Brewster, trombone and Aled Meredith-Barrett, tuba.
Aled was once a member of West Wales brass band Goodwick Brass.
Connaught Brass Quintet was formed in 2016 and all five players are about to enter their final year as students of the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Dance.
Each of the finalists gave a 40-minute programme and the judges found it very difficult to pick a winner as the overall standard was so high.
Connaught won the £10,000 Philip Jones Prize.