Honour for Tredegar as band invited to perform at prestigious Linz Brass Festival
ON SUNDAY, November 18, Cory Band will be taking part in Brass in Concert at the Sage, Gateshead, which will be a contest between 11 of the best bands in Britain and Europe presenting their own concert programme.
Tredegar are not taking part in this contest because they have been invited to present a gala concert at the 5th Austrian National Championships, which is a part of the high profile Linz Brass Festival and appearing with Tredegar, among others, will be Welsh Euphonium Soloist David Childs.
The contest, followed by the gala concert, will take place in the 1,400 seat Brucknerhaus in Linz. A great honour for this Welsh band.
Cory musical director Philip Harper has linked up with Brass Band Schoonhoven, by invite, to rehearse them on Torstein Aagaard-Nilsen’s Old Licks Bluesed Up ahead of the recent Dutch National Championships at Utrecht.
He conducted this piece with Manger Musikklag in the 2016 Norwegion Championships.
He has also been invited to act as an ‘unofficial adjudicator’ at the 15th Utrecht Blaast Atelier Pfieffer NBK Try-Out event held in the ZIMIHC Stefanus Theatre in Utrecht.
A spokesman for Schoonhoven Band said: “We are looking forward to Philip’s visit. As one of the world’s leading brass band conductors we are sure he will offer inspiration and insight that will not only benefit us, but also the other bands in the Try Out event.”
It would be nice if the national press could report a little more regularly on our brass bands so that they become more of a talking point and a larger part of the fibre of this country.
To make my point I recall just a few years ago when Cory and Tredegar were placed first and second in the Final of the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain (2013) and being asked about a week later by a lady living in Tredegar if Tredegar still had a band! Enough said!
I look forward to next year’s Honours Lists as I am sure that personalities like those above certainly have the requisite qualifications to be awarded some form of recognition to add to the enormous respect that they already enjoy internationally.