Features | Brass Band World

Sunday 13 March 2016

Let's Debate with Howard Snell

Conductor, composer, arranger, player and educator, Howard Snell, recently rekindled his love affair with brass bands by leading Bjørsvik Band at the Norwegian National. Here he gives his views about what has changed since he was last immersed in the brass band culture When I said “goodbye!” to contesting and regular band...read more

Sunday 13 March 2016

Exclusive Interview with Harmen Vanhoorne

Christopher Thomas catches up with the international cornet soloist and Besson Artist - Harmen Vanhoorne - to find out how about his high-flying career since leaving the Belgian Brassband Buizingen CT: Taking you back to your formative years in Belgium, you played in numerous wind bands early on, but can you recall...read more

Saturday 13 February 2016

UniBrass 2016 Preview and Prediction

University Brass Band Championship of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Butterworth Hall - Warwick Arts Centre Saturday 20th February 2016Live stream available belowTickets available here It would be easy to dismiss UniBrass as a bit of student fun; a chance for young brass band socialites from all over the UK to...read more

Saturday 13 February 2016

RNCM Brass Band Festival

As a showcase of all that is great about brass band music, the renamed RNCM Brass Band Festival remains pre-eminent across the world in its programming of the highest quality brass band repertoire and performers, as Christopher Thomas discovered. It is perhaps fortuitous that the RNCM Brass Band Festival (a subtle yet...read more

Saturday 13 February 2016

February's contest round-up

The French National, Brass at the Guild, British Open Youth Championships, and Butlin's Mineworkers Open National Brass Band Festival are all given full retrospective coverage in this month's BBW. Later this year, for the first time in history, the European Brass Band Championship will take place on French soil. The venue will...read more

Saturday 13 February 2016

Know the score: Cambridge Variations

The 2016 Championships section British Regional test-piece, Cambridge Variations, has entered contesting folklore - composer and conductor, Tom Davoren, examines the reasons why and delves into the score... For as long as I’ve trodden the boards of British brass band rehearsal rooms, there has been an aura surrounding Philip Sparke’s Cambridge Variations....read more

Saturday 13 February 2016

Aerial view from ‘the box’

Brass Band World collaborates with the Association of Brass Band Adjudicators (AoBBA) in providing an adjudicator’s perspective on this year’s Regional test-piece selections for sections 1-4 SECTION 1Essay by Edward Gregson AoBBA adjudicator - Paul Holland It is expected that conductors will be as musically creative as possible within the bounds of...read more