Wales still on top in Europe as Cory win first place
FROM April 28-30 the City of Birmingham was the venue for the European Brass Band Championships, which saw the very best band from each European country competing against each other.
I am delighted to report that Wales still has the best brass band in Europe.
It will come as no surprise that the winning Welsh band was the Cory Band from the Rhondda Valley who are also ranked as the best band in the world.
In addition to this great result the prize for being the Best Soloist was awarded to Will Norman who plays Flugel with the other Welsh band Tredegar Town.
The bands were required to play a set test piece on the Saturday which was ‘Saints Triumphant’ by Professor Philip Wilby.
On the Sunday they again competed by playing a piece of music of their own choosing.
The adjudicators awarded points for each performance and the band with the highest aggregate was declared the winner.
The adjudicators for the Set Work were Professor Garry Cutt, Katrina Marzella-Wheeler and Eric Janssen. The adjudicators for the Own Choice music were Arvid Anthun, Christophe Jeanbourquin and Jan de Haar.
Many congratulations to Philip Harper and Cory Band and to Ian Porthouse and Tredegar Town Band.
There were other competitions involving different sections and the result of the 2022 European Championship Challenge Section were:
1st – Brass Band Regensburg (Thomas Freiss) 91pts Germany
2nd – Brass Band Uberetsch (Johann Finatzer) 90pts North Italy
3rd – Hebden Bridge Band (Christopher Binns) 89pts England
4th – Downshire Brass (Malcolm Alcorn) 88pts Northern Ireland
The test piece for this section was Variations for Brass Band by Ralph Vaughan Williams and adapted by Philip Littlemore.
It was great to see a young band from Wales competing in the Development Section of the European Youth Championships.
The South Wales Youth Band was created particularly to play in these championships.
The band is a combination of City of Cardiff Melingriffith M3 Youth Band and Rhondda Fach Youth Band.
They have only been together a few months and have shown great promise.
The results of this Development Section: ■ 1st – Wardle Academy Youth Band (Lee Rigg) England ■ 2nd – Smoras Skolemusikk (Magnus Brandseth) Norway ■ 3rd – Elland Silver Youth Brass Band (Samantha Harmison) England ■ 4th – Brass Band Aukstyn (Byorn Breistein & Remigijus Vilys Lithuania ■ 5th – South Wales Youth Band (Carol Flanary-Davies) Wales ■ 6th – National Youth Band Scotland (John Boax) Scotland.
What a wonderful experience this event will have been for all these youngsters!