Brass in Concert Championships 2024 - As it Happened!
On Saturday Flowers made the long journey to Gateshead to compete at the 2024 Brass in Concert Championships. This annual event is a real highlight of our year as it’s so different from our other contests. At other contests all bands play a set major test piece whereas at Brass in Concert bands bring a unique programme, plus choreography, props, and audio-visual effects to maximise the entertainment factor. This year was a sell-out, and we were delighted to perform to a packed house of 1,500 at the Glasshouse International Centre of Music.
Our programme this year was entitled ‘Game On’ and took inspiration from different eras of video games, from early 8-bit arcade games through to modern virtual reality experiences. We commissioned an international cast of composers to create five new works for the band, and we were thrilled with their innovative and varied approaches.
We opened our programme with ‘Press Start’ by Lucy Pankhurst, inspired by ‘Pong’ which was one of the very first video games. It started with sound effects that seamlessly blend into a full band sound, and the music becomes faster and more frenetic as we moved through the levels of the game. It even featured some DIY percussion instruments that made laser-like noises to sound like Space Invaders! We thoroughly enjoyed working with Lucy in 2023 on her award-winning ‘Time for Tea’ and it was wonderful playing her music again this year.
We’re taking suggestions for what to call this new instrument… the laser bucket?
Our second piece was ‘Quest for Coin’ by Daniel Hall. The audience were transported into a game of Mario Kart with carefully coordinated video, lighting effects and music. The writing evokes the nostalgia of 80s and 90s platform games, with the players collecting coins and dodging banana peels. As we reached the final lap we waved the chequered flag and sped to the finish while MD Paul Holland threw Mario and Luigi toys into the audience as keepsakes of our performance.
Soprano Paul Richards was our featured soloist, performing ‘Beyond the Veil’ by Thibaut Bruniaux. This is an expansive and lyrical solo which evokes the worlds created in games like Legend of Zelda and Skyrim: imagine magical forests, epic landscapes and breath-taking night skies. Paul is renowned for his quality of sound and musicality and this shone through in this performance. He created an incredible atmosphere in the hall; you could hear a pin drop as he paused momentarily before taking a breath for his final note. The audience erupted with applause, a very deserved reception for our super sop.
Our penultimate number was ‘Guitar Zero’ by Belgian Composer Stijn Aertgeerts, inspired by a game with an almost identical name (but not quite!). This was one for the classic rock fans, as Stijn cleverly wove in so many iconic songs: from ‘Sweet Child Of Mine’ to ‘I Love Rock and Roll’, ‘Stairway to Heaven’ and ‘Through the Fire and Flames’. Each section of the band was out of their seats for a feature, and the whooping and whistling response to each section made us feel like real pop stars!
We closed our programme with ‘Fractured Reality’ by Dan Price. Imagine a world where the lines between reality and the virtual are so blurred, you can’t tell where one ends and the other begins. Dan Price created this soundscape with a combination of electronic sounds and band; truly innovative writing that pushes our medium forwards. The cornets were spread around the stage to create antiphonal effects to add to the immersive quality of the performance. We’ve worked with Dan on many occasions and we were delighted to collaborate with him again for this year’s programme.
It was soon time for the results, and we gathered in the foyer of the Glasshouse with members of the other ten competing bands and the audience to hear the inimitable Frank Renton make the announcements.
First up were the individual and section awards, selected by adjudicator Stephen Cobb. We were elated to hear two of our own announced as winners. We are hugely proud of Lauren Chinn for winning The Bennett Family Trophy for Best Flugel Horn, and of Luke Barker for winning The Harry Mortimer Trophy for Best Principal Cornet! We are privileged to hear their playing at rehearsals week in week out, and it’s fantastic to see their talent recognised at the highest level against extremely tough competition.
Next up was the audience prize, voted for by audience members in the hall and viewing via the livestream online. We were thrilled to be announced as the winners of this coveted award, for the first time ever! It is extremely uplifting to hear that our programme resonated so strongly with audience members, especially as we shall be performing it at many of our concerts over the next year. Thank you so much to everyone who voted, your support means the world to us.
Finally the overall placings, which were counted down from 6th to 1st. We were awarded 3rd place which equals our best ever result, matching our podium placings from 2019, 2021 and 2023. Congratulations to our friends at Cory and Brighouse and Rastrick, who took 1st and 2nd place respectively. This means that in 2024 we have been awarded with a podium placing at every contest performance we have given.
Thank you so much to the organisers for putting on another tremendous event. We always enjoy our trip to Gateshead, and we look forward to next year. We are also grateful to the World of Brass team for producing another wonderful live stream event. You can watch our performance on replay on their Wobplay platform.
A quick bit of sightseeing on the way home!
Thanks to Ceri-Ann who portrayed our 80s gamer, telling the story between each item of the programme through interacting with our visual timeline, before dashing back into the action in our percussion section. Thanks also to our creative team who made the props, including our custom arcade machine, and the video effects - there are too many to name individually but their contributions were invaluable.
Thank you to all our supporters for following along and encouraging us to keep performing at the highest level. We love what we do, and we couldn’t do it with your support.