2007 Festival of Brass

It's Monday morning, and it has been an incredible weekend. Every year here at the RNCM we have a Festival of Brass, where we invite all types of brass ensembles (but mostly Brass Bands) to the RNCM for concerts, and this year we had some great ones! Here was the run-down of the invited bands and their programs:

Black Dyke Band
- Pomp and Circumstance March No. 6 - Elgar/arr. Wilby
- Cornet Concerto - Aagaard-Nilsen
- Boddington Variations - Howarth
- Sea Pictures - Elgar/arr. Wilby
- Resurgam - Ball
- Vienna Nights - Wilby

Eikanger-Bjørsvik Musikklag
- Festival Music - Ball
- West Side Story Suite - Bernstein
- Scenes from Romeo and Juliet - Prokofiev

Fodens Richardson Band
- Song of Courage - Ball
- Rote Fahne Musik - Muldowny
- Pictures in the smoke for piano and brass - Tovey
- Symphonic Study "Energy" - Simpson
- Altitude - Benjamin
- A Severn Suite - Elgar

Leyland Band
- Journey into Freedom - Ball
- Trombel for trombone and band - Berg
- Lyonesse - Dobson
- Hymn for Africa - Meechan
- Paganini Variations - Wilby

Buy as You View Band
- Overture 'Froissart' - Elgar/arr. Ball
- Concerto for Tenor Horn - Wood
- High Peak - Ball
- Symphonic Study 'Volcano' - Simpson
- Requiem - Bedford
- The Promised Land - Downie

Brighouse and Rastrick Band
- Festive Overture - Hesketh
- Tuba Concerto - Horowitz
- The Undaunted - Ball
- Triumphal March - Elgar/arr. Bragg
- Rondo in Blue Minor - Ellis
- Ivory Ghosts - Higgins
- An Epic Symphony - Fletcher

Overall it was a great weekend. I got to see some incredible bands, and hear some incredible music. While I thoroughly enjoyed all of the bands that I got to see, I think that the Eikanger band was my favorite. They brought this brand new arrangement of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet that was simply stunning. It took the entire first half of the concert, about 50 minutes total in duration - that is an immense piece of music for a brass band.

Other than the Festival of Brass this weekend, my euphonium quartet was hired for a concert at the Witworth Art Gallery. We were pleasantly surprised. They seemed to have publicized it well, and had almost 50 people in attendance for the concert. It was nice getting out the college and playing for people, and the room wasn't bad to play in either.

Overall, not a bad weekend! ;) You can click on the various band names for their websites, and click below for a rundown of the weekends festivities!