Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Brass band hits right note with judges at contest
Ensemble through to national competition
A talented Canterbury brass band has good reason to blow its own trumpet after winning through to the finals of a prestigious national competition. It is a huge achievement for Simon Langton Brass, whose members are “ecstatic” at being placed first in the regional qualifying contest last month, where they competed against 17 other bands from London and the Southern Counties.
As well as winning the competition, the band’s principal cornetist, Keith Pritchard, was awarded the ‘best instrumentalist’ prize and its musical director, Andy Collins, took home the ‘winning conductor’s’ award. Musical director Andy, a retired policeman, says members are over the moon. “It’s a huge achievement for us because we would have been happy to finish in the top three and still qualify,” he said.
“But it’s also a testament to the hard work and dedication of our musicians who have been rehearsing the piece both together and individually at home to be the best they can. “When the results were read out, we were absolutely over the moon and some of the comments of the judges made us feel very proud.”
The judges praised Simon Langton Brass for its “accomplished, well-crafted performance”, adding that the musical director had demonstrated “cultural musical understanding”. “We really enjoyed working on the piece and it grew on everyone,” Andy said.
“We put in the work and I tried to emphasise the style of the music as well as bringing out the little intricacies and it appears to have worked.” The band rehearses at Simon Langton Boys’ Grammar School from 7.30pm to 9pm on Mondays. Soon, they will be rehearsing hard to test their talents against the very best in the country at the finals of the National Brass Band Championships in Cheltenham in September. Andy said: “We have just learned that the piece we will have to perform in the finals in September is The Lost Village of Imber composed by Christopher Bond, which tells the story of how a village on the Salisbury Plains was lost to the military. “We have a a few concerts before then but will start to immerse ourselves in the piece later in June.”