Final European Festival Ticket Sales
Brass Bands England (BBE) and the European Brass Band Association (EBBA) have announced that final arrangements for the 2022 European Brass Band Festival, to be held at Symphony Hall, Birmingham from 28 April to 1 May, are underway, with a final tranche of tickets due to go on sale today 9 February).
Speaking on behalf of EBBA, the organisation’s President, Ulf Rosenberg, commented: “The past few months have been very worrying for the brass band community across Europe, but we are delighted to be able to confirm that we will have an outstanding line-up of bands committed to travelling to Birmingham for the European Brass Band Championships in association with World of Brass. We are very grateful for all their efforts and to BBE for staying committed to staging the event in the face of great uncertainty caused by the latest Covid variant. Symphony Hall is a wonderful venue for the return of the European Championships following a two-year enforced absence and we are looking forward to welcoming our many friends from around the banding world to what promises to be a fantastic event!”
The 2022 European Brass Band Festival will begin on Thursday 28 April with a Festival Prelude featuring the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain and the Band of HM Royal Marines, Collingwood in Birmingham Town Hall. The same venue will host the Final of the European Composers’ Competition the following evening on Friday 29 April. The three works in the final will be performed by Grimethorpe Colliery Band, which will also give a special one-off concert in the second half.
Events in Symphony Hall will kick off with the European Youth Brass Band Contest on the morning of Saturday (30th). That will be followed by the European Brass Band Championships, in association with World of Brass, and the Championship Section Set Test- piece section. The top bands will play a specially commissioned work by Professor Philip Wilby, ‘Saints Triumphant’.
The Championship sections consist of the following 12 bands:
3BA (Germany)
Concord Brass Band (Denmark)
the cooperation band (Scotland)
Cory (Defending Champion)
Foden’s (England)
Gota Brass Band (Sweden)
Hauts-de-France Brass Band (France)
Brass Band Oberösterreich (Austria)
Brass Band Schoonhoven (Netherlands)
Stavanger Brass Band (Norway)
Tredegar (Wales)
Valaisia Brass Band (Switzerland)
Sunday morning’s Challenge Section is expected to feature five bands from emerging brass band nations, and they will all perform ‘Variations for Brass Band’ (Ralph Vaughan Williams) as part of their programmes. The extremely popular Championship Own-choice Section will follow on Sunday afternoon, before the event closes that evening with a spectacular Gala Concert featuring Cory Band and Louis Dowdeswell’s Big Band, results ceremony and brass party!
The European Youth Brass Band, consisting of talented players from all member countries of the European Brass Band Association, will gather also this year in Birmingham. The band will give various concert in and around Birmingham during the festival week, conducted by Florent Didier (France).
Speaking on behalf of BBE, the organisation’s Chairman, Mike Kilroy, stated: “Now that we have received the final ticket order from participants, we are able to initiate the final public sale for the European Brass Band Festival. We have a fantastic programme of events and some of the best seats in the house are now available, so come and join us at Symphony Hall for what promises to be an unforgettable event featuring some of the best bands in the world playing wonderful music.”
Ticket details for the European Brass Band Festival are available at https://www.bbe.org.uk/ebbf or they can be booked directly at https://bmusic.co.uk/ebbf-2022
Image credit: Lorne Campbell. Featuring students from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire who will be involved in the Festival either performing or volunteering: Archie McVicar - tuba, Anabel Voigt - tenor horn, Phoebe Snook -flugelhorn, Rossano Law - euphonium, Nadia James -cornet, Mikey Foley-Hall - cornet, Greg Male -trombone
