2024 in Review
Regular readers of this newsletter will already be aware that 2024 has been a truly incredible year for Flowers Band, with record-breaking contest results and memorable concert performances across the UK and in France.
Our first engagement of 2024 was our annual concert at Stroud Subscription Rooms in February. It was fantastic to start the year performing to a capacity audience, and a great opportunity to introduce our new soloists Dan Thomas (solo euphonium), Chris Thomas (solo trombone) and Matt Rowe (solo baritone debut). We’ll be back in Stroud on 16th February 2025.
Dan and Nina - Stroud Subscription Rooms
Also in February, five of our principal players led a ‘Masterclass Day’ for Ledbury Town Band and friends. With a massed band of over 60 local, the band was conducted by our Solo Baritone player Matt Rowe, with sectionals being led by Luke, Emily, Chris, and Gregor. It was a brilliant opportunity for us to meet lots of local banders, and we had a great time working through repertoire from Malvern Suite to Bright Lights, Big City! We are so pleased that we will be returning to Ledbury in April 2025.
Matt Rowe conducting the Massed Band with Soloist Emily Evans
In March, we competed at The West of England Regional Championships in Torquay, kicking off our contesting year with a resounding win following our rendition of ‘Variations on an Enigma’. We were delighted to bring the trophy back to Gloucester for the first time since 2019 after three consecutive second places, along with securing our qualification place for the National Finals in London. As National Champions of Great Britain, we have prequalified for the 2025 National Finals, however we will be endeavouring to defend our West of England Regional title when we return to Torquay on 9th March 2025.
West of England Regional Champions 2024
In April, we enjoyed performing two high profile concerts. The first was at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire where we were thrilled to be invited to give the gala concert of ConsTest: Birmingham Open Brass Band Championships. ConsTest is a new competition founded in 2023 and organised by former Flowers cornet player Mikey Foley-Hall, and we’re delighted to see its success in bringing together bands from across a wide geography. It will be back for it’s third edition in 2025 by popular demand with around 20 bands performing an exciting range of own choice test pieces.
A week later we made the long journey to Yorkshire to appear at the Leeds International Concert Season ‘Best of Brass’ Series. It was wonderful to return to such an enthusiastic and knowledgeable audience at Morley Town Hall, and thank you for such a wonderful reception to our performances of the 2023 British Open test piece ‘Sand and Stars’ and our Brass in Concert 2023 ‘Alice in Wonderland’ programme featuring Emily Evans on solo horn.
Morley Town Hall
In May, we headed to South Gloucestershire for the Badminton Horse Trials - a highlight in the equestrian calendar, and now ours too! The band performed in the main arena to an audience of over 14,000 people, including Her Majesty the Queen. A highlight of the day was performing for the Parade of Hounds, in which the Duke of Beaufort’s Hunt lap the arena, with dozens of dogs running through the band! After a total washout in 2023 which involved adding wellies to our band uniform, the glorious sunshine this year was a very welcome change. Let’s hope for the same again in 2025!
Badminton’s Main Arena
May also saw us make our debut at Newbury Spring Festival, a prestigious classical music festival in Berkshire. The first of our two performances took place in the Kennet Shopping Centre in a free concert for anyone to listen to. The band got the audience grooving with hits from ABBA and even a bit of Boney-M. The band then moved over to the Corn Exchange and performed our award winning ‘Alice in Wonderland’ themed programme, ‘Sand and Stars’, as well as a major work from the pen of choral composer Paul Mealor entitled ‘Heart of Hidden Flame’. It was great to perform in a new area for the band, and we very much hope that we can return in the future.
Newbury Spring Festival 2024
In June, the band crossed the Channel to compete at the French Open in the stunning town of Amboise. We have performed at this contest several times and it is always a memorable weekend! The day began with a march contest, with the band parading through the street before giving a performance of our contest march ‘The Cossack’ in the shadow of the imposing Chateau d’Amboise. This was then followed by the test piece contest in the Theatre Beaumarchais in which the band performed a brief opener, featured solo (showing off Dan Thomas’s incredible technical skill with the 3rd movement of Vladimir Cosma’s euphonium concerto), and gave our rendition of the set work for the contest, ‘Heroes’ by Bruce Broughton. At 10pm the band took to the stage to perform the Gala Concert to an audience of over 1,500 people, receiving several standing ovations. The results were announced in the interval and Flowers were awarded the prizes for Best March, Best Test Piece Performance and Overall Winners, with soloist Dan Thomas receiving the Best Soloist prize. The local bar ‘Le Shaker’ did a roaring trade that evening, and even stayed open an extra couple of hours to let us celebrate the win!
In July we made a welcome return to The Three Choirs Festival in Worcester Cathedral. Following our debut performance at the Festival in 2023, we were delighted to be asked to provide two small ensembles to perform as part of the Opening Service and the “American Friend’s Evensong.” It was great to work with Worcester Cathedral’s Director of Music, Sam Hudson and to perform with the choirs in such a glorious building.
Rehearsal with the Three Choirs Festival Chorus
September saw us compete at The British Open Championships at Birmingham Symphony Hall. This contest is the oldest music competition in the world, with this year’s championships being the 170th contest. The line-up of bands includes the 17 best brass bands in the UK along with the highest placed non-UK band at the European Brass Band Championships of the previous year. We were absolutely ecstatic to take home 2nd place with our performance of Jan van der Roost’s new work ‘The Lost Circle’. This was our highest ever result at the contest, and Paul Richards also received the award for ‘Best Soprano Cornet’. The winning band was Brass Band Treize Etoiles from Switzerland, and this means that we were the highest placed British band, as such we have received our first ever invitation to represent England at The European Brass Band Championships in Linz in April 2026.
British Open 2024
In October, we set our sights on The National Finals at The Royal Albert Hall. The set piece was ‘Harrison’s Dream’ by Peter Graham. We were drawn to play 17th out of 20 bands (a favourable draw after a few years of early starts!) and for the first time in our history we were crowned The National Champions of Great Britain. Further to this our solo euphonium Dan Thomas was awarded the prize for ‘Most Outstanding Player’. We are incredibly proud to now call ourselves the National Champions of Great Britain, and even more so because we are the first band from the West of England to win in the 124 year history of the competition.
National Champions of Great Britain
October was a busy month for our tutor team with two workshop days, one with Enderby Youth Band and the other all the way down in Totnes, with the Devon County Youth Brass Band. We had a great time working with so many talented young players, looking at new pieces in full band and sectional rehearsals, answering questions in a Q&A setting, and giving an end of day sharing to showcase the progress made through the day. Leading these workshop days is hugely rewarding for us. It is so inspiring to hear the talented young musicians who are the future of our movement, and we look forward to several more of these in 2025.
Devon County Youth Brass Band
The contest season is a relentless schedule, and in November we were back on the road again for the Brass in Concert Championships in Gateshead. This innovative contest requires bands to present a 25 minute programme of their choosing. We commissioned five new works from an exciting group of international composers and themed our programme around the evolution of gaming. From Pong to Mario Kart, Skyrim to Guitar Hero, we took listeners on a journey all the way up to the modern world of Virtual Reality. We were delighted to be awarded 3rd place, but even more so to win the coveted ‘Audience Prize,’ as voted for by the audience on the day. This wasn’t the end of our success, as Luke Barker took the award for Best Principal Cornet and Lauren Chinn took the award for Best Flugel Horn. We will be performing this programme again at several concerts over the coming year, so don’t miss out on the chance to hear it!
Brass in Concert 2024
In December, we were delighted to perform to three sold out audiences - at the Maggie’s Cancer Care annual fundraising concert in Cheltenham, Pershore No 8 Arts Centre, and the Bacon Theatre in Cheltenham. At our final concert of the year our MD Paul Holland presented our annual awards, to the trombones (Section of the Year), Luke Barker (Player of the Year and Players’ Player), Matt Rowe (Bandsman of the Year) and Nina Lin (Dave Lee Memorial Award).
Finally, we were thrilled to feature in the nominations for several categories of the annual 4barsrest awards. 4barsrest is a popular brass band media outlet and every year they nominate players, conductors, composers, performances, and more for various awards. An expert panel of 15 people is then assembled and they vote for their top 3 in each category.
2024 Conductor of the Year - Paul Holland - Winner
2024 Player of the Year - Paul Richards - Winner
2024 Player of the Year - Luke Barker
2024 Player of the Year - Dan Thomas
2024 Band of the Year - Flowers Band - 2nd Place
2024 Contest Performance of the Year - Harrison’s Dream, Flowers Band, National Finals 2024
We end the year with our equal highest ever ranking, as 5th best band in the world.
The band are now taking a well-earned break before we resume rehearsals next week where we start the cycle all over again. After such an exciting year we cannot wait to see what 2025 holds for us!
It has been a quite extraordinary year for the band and we have many people to thank.
To our inspirational Musical Director Paul Holland - thank you for your vision, persistence and constant belief that we can keep reaching for higher heights.
To our dedicated ‘back office’ team including our committee members, Band Chairman Michael James and Librarian Karin Lythell - thank you for your dedication and all the many hours you put in outside rehearsals that enable the smooth running of the band.
And to you, all of our supporters who have come to our concerts, bought our merchandise, followed us on social media, and donated to support our activities. We are so grateful for you - we really couldn’t do what we do without you all. Thank you so much.
From all of us at Flowers, we wish you a very Happy New Year, and we hope you’ll join us for more memorable performances in 2025.