Brass the Baton finale

10-Jun-2012
2,012 brass band musicians required for Brass the Baton finale in Durham.

With just over eight weeks to go to the start of the Olympic Games, the British Federation of Brass Bands has announced plans for the grand finale event of their London 2012 Inspire project, ‘Brass the Baton’.

Durham finale

Project Director, Terry Luddington, told 4BR: "The finale for ‘Brass the Baton’ will take place on Sunday 22nd July in the City of Durham as part of the closing celebrations of this year’s Brass: Durham International Festival."

He added: "We’ve been working closely with Durham County Council and preparations are well underway to host the finale event on The Sands, a large green space close to Durham City Centre.

Our ambition is to attract 2,012 volunteer performers and we are putting the necessary infrastructure in place for this scale of performance. The plan is to assemble five massed ‘Colour Bands’ under the five ‘Brass the Baton’ banners, one for each of the five coloured conductor’s batons used throughout the relay."

Performance premiere

The performance will see the world premiere of the new music commission, ‘Going the Distance’ in its entirety.

Conducted by composer Paul Lovatt-Cooper, it will include a performance of the original ‘Inception Piece’, followed by the five massed ‘Colour Bands’ who will perform the five colour versions from the ‘Brass the Baton’ relay, before all 2,012 performers will attempt to ‘Go the Distance’ and perform all five versions of the music together.

Take part

The opportunity to take part will be open to all brass bands and individual brass band musicians of all ages and abilities.

The Durham County Brass Band Association (DCBBA) has announced that they have received a £10,000 National Lottery award specifically to help brass bands from the region take part.

'With 2,012 places available we hope everyone who wants to take part will have the opportunity to do so'

~ Terry Luddington

Further information

If you are interested in accessing this funding for 'Brass the Baton' then please send an email to for further information.

Terry Luddington concluded: "With 2,012 places available we hope everyone who wants to take part will have the opportunity to do so.

All participants must register in advance so please send an email to so we can send you a registration pack and provide access to the music parts for download."