2007 North American Brass Band Championships - Youth and Youth Open Sections

We take a look at the youth bands that will be competing at the 2007 North American Brass Band Championships.

Youth Section:
Saturday, April 13, 2007
Venue: Stem Concert Hall
Time: 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Set Piece: A Swiss Festival Overture (Sparke)

Youth Open Section:
Saturday, April 13, 2007
Venue: Stem Concert Hall
Time: 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Set Piece: Little Suite for Brass No.1 (Arnold)

This year brings some change to the slowly but steadily growing youth band movement in North America.  For the first time at the NABBA Championships there is a Youth Open Section in addition to the traditional Youth Section.  

The Youth Open Section will have slightly easier test pieces and allows bands with non-traditional British-style brass band instrumentation.  The thought being that when a youth band forms initially, it is very difficult to finance a full set of cornets (rather than trumpets), tenor horns (rather than French horns) and British-style baritones.

Due to these changes there are a total of 4 bands in the Youth Sections as compared to 3 last year, and with new youth bands in Detroit, Atlanta, and talk of many more to come, this is a strong move to help future growth.

Cincinnati Honors Band
Conductor: Greg Mills
Section: Youth

Recent Form at NABBA:
2006: 2nd/3 (Youth)
2005: 1st/1 (Youth)
2004: 2nd/3 (Youth)
2003: DNC
2002: DNC

This band of high school is now competing at NABBA for the fourth time, which means it's seniors have good amount of brass band and contesting experience. One would think that this could be the year that they break through and win their first title. 

However, with the restructuring of the Triangle youth groups, Triangle Youth Brass Band will be trimming down it's size to a cleaner ensemble and will be tough to beat. 

Junior Varsity All-Stars
Conductor: Chad McGee
Section: Youth Open

Recent Form at NABBA :
2006: 3rd/3 (Youth)
2005: DNC
2004: 3rd/3 (Youth – as Varsity All-Stars)
2003: DNC
2002: 2nd/2 (Youth)

The Junior Varsity All-Stars Band is composed mainly of of 12-15 year old brass students and feeds into the All-Star Brass & Percussion. Because they had always been going against much older students and better players in the past, they have not finished outside of last place in sometime.

With the new rule changes and this band competing in the Youth Open Section, they may stand a chance.

Triangle Youth Brass Band
Conductor: Tony Granados
Section: Youth 

Recent Form at NABBA:
2006: 1st/3 (Youth)
2005: DNC
2004: 1st/3 (Youth)
2003: DNC
2002: 1st/2 (Youth)

For quite sometime now, this has been the band to beat. Because of Tony Granado's fantastic recruiting young players, the Triangle Youth Brass Band has had to split into two groups. This year, the band should be even better due to the smaller numbers and having the better players of the two groups. 

Triangle Youth Brass Band appears to be a bit of a "dynasty" and one wonders how many more years this will last until another youth band can catch up. 

Triangle Youth Brass Ensemble
Conductor: Paul Pietrowski
Section: Youth Open

Recent Form at NABBA:
2006: DNC
2005: DNC
2004: DNC
2003: DNC
2002: DNC

Tony Granados has done a fantastic job with the Triangle Youth Band from both a recruiting and musicianship standpoint.  The band has always played quite well and until knocked off from their perch will continue to be the top band in this section. 

One can expect similar results from this new addition to the Triangle Brass Band family.

4BR Prediction:

Youth Section

Cincinnati keeps narrowing the gap each year, but the slim & trim Triangle Youth Brass Band should be tough to beat.

1.  Triangle Youth Brass Band
2.  Cincinnati Honors Band

Youth Open Section

The JV band wasn't even competitive last year finishing some 35 points out of first.  The new section should help them as they will be against more equal competition.  However, it appears the Triangle Youth program has the Midas touch and we expect his new youth group to finish on top.  

What will be interesting is to see how the adjudicators deal with this section in the future as the tolerance of non-British instrumentation can lead to quite different timbres from the traditional British sound as compared to that of an American Brass Ensemble.

1.  Triangle Youth Brass Ensemble
2.  Junior-Varsity All-Star Band

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