Award winning Newstead Brass are in ‘Seventh Heaven’
following one of their best-ever contest results, finishing as the highest
placed midlands’ brass band with a top 7 finish in the British Open Brass Band
Championships Spring Festival, regarded as ‘the hardest brass band contest in
the world to win.’
The Spring Festival took place at Blackpool's Winter Gardens
on Saturday May 11th, with 60 bands striving to progress through ‘Cup’,
‘Trophy’ and ‘Shield’ competitions to qualify for the British Open Championship
Finals
.
Competing in the ‘Grand Shield’, the final qualifying stage,
musical director Duncan Beckley led Newstead through a fine performance of the
set piece, Philip Wilby’s ‘Red Priest’, a technically demanding reworking of
themes by Vivaldi. Adjudicators Frank
Renton and Allan Ramsey placed Newstead 7th from the 20 competing bands. The top two bands, Milnrow and Kirkintilloch
qualified for the British Open championship finals to be held at Birmingham
Symphony Hall in September.
A band spokesman commented, “We were ranked 19th of the 20
competing bands before the contest started so a top 7 finish represents a
fantastic outcome on a very challenging piece.
Our congratulations to the winning bands. We will, of course, be aiming to go even
better and emulate them next year!”
Newstead brass now prepare for a busy Summer
season in which they will give a range of concerts across the East
Midlands. Details can be found on the
band website
