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4BR Christmas Quiz
How good is your brass band knowledge?

Thanks to our friends at Band Supplies and Besson we have a fantastic Prodige Cornet and gifts waiting to find a new home in 2026 — if you can get the answers right.

There are 30 questions to answer. We don't think they are too difficult, but you may need a little bit of searching on the worldwide web or on 4BR should see you OK.  If not, have a guess. 

Thanks to our friends at Band Supplies Ltd and Besson the prize is a brand new Besson Prodige cornet worth over £550, plus a set of Champion mutes to go with it.

Thanks to our friends at Band Supplies Ltd and Besson the prize is a brand new Besson Prodige corent worth over £550, plus a set of Champion mutes to go with it.

The only stipulation we ask is that the prize be donated to a young player in a youth, learner, starter or training band. 

Answers: 

Answers to be sent to: quiz@4barsrest.com

Closing Date:

The closing date is 11.59pm on 31st December 2025!

REMEMBER: PLEASE SAY WHICH YOUTH/LEARNER/STARTER OR TRAINING BAND BAND OR ORGANISATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO DONATE THE PRIZE TO IF YOU WIN.


1. Which player arrived on stage in a coffin in 2025?

2. The cooperation band’s winning Brass in Concert programme was narrated by an actor (below) playing which famous fashion designer, businesswoman, perfume maker and Nazi collaborator?



3. What is the literary link between the following test-pieces? ‘Star Crossed Lovers’, ‘Caliban’, ‘Lorenzo’ and ‘Beatrice & Benedict’?

4. Which two bands were relegated from the 2025 British Open?

5. Who this year became the first woman to lead a band to a Championship Section Area title – 47 years after the last, Barbara Stone, did so in 1978?

6. Who did Richard Marshall take over from as principal cornet of Black Dyke Band in 2006?

7.  Apart from David Morton, who is the only other conductor to lead Desford Colliery Band to National Championship of Great Britain title success?

8.  Who is this professional trombone player (below), who was 'Best Soloist' at Brass in Concert in 2021?

9. What is the link between the test-piece ‘Le Roi d’Ys’, Freddie Mercury, a character in the Australian soap opera ‘Neighbours’ who played the tuba in the Salvation Army, a famous Whit Friday march written by George Allan, and the old presenter (who also played the trumpet) of the BBC television children’s programme ‘Record Breakers’? 

10. And in what test-piece would you have possibly found some (below), if not all of them, this year? 

11. Which band was crowned Fourth Section National Champion of Great Britain in 2025?

12.  Which award winning soloist brought UK audiences musical portraits of ‘Three Gods’  at this year’s RNCM International Brass Band Festival and in concert with the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain in London?

13. What does the musical term ‘con slancio’ mean?

14. True or false?  Sir Edward Elgar (below) once wrote a football song in honour of Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Billy Malpass called, ‘He Banged the Leather for Goal’?

15. What was invented in 1711 by John Shore, Handel’s trumpeter, which has been used by musicians, instrument makers and orthopaedic surgeons ever since? 

16.  Which composer wrote the music to the films ‘Psycho’, ‘Cape Fear’  and ‘Taxi Driver’

17.  Which trumpet player made her final live concert appearance at ‘The Last Night of the Proms’ this year? 

18. Michael Hext, Adrian Spillett, Peter Moore and Jordan Ashman are all former winners of which famous televised music competition?

19. How many test-pieces has composer Philip Sparke (above) written for the British Open Championship? 

a) 4
b) 6
c) None

20. Which band is the current Championship Section World Champion?

21. In which city is Thierry Delruyelle’s test-piece ‘Crazy Twenties’  set?

22.  Name the composer (below) of this work performed at a major championship this year?

23. Which National Championship event commissioned new test-piece works from Thomas Doss, Philip Wilby, Bert Appermont, Philip Sparke, Simon Dobson and Thierry Deleruyelle this year?

24. Who is this conductor (below)? 

25. Who is the only other band part from Tredegar and Cory to have won the Welsh Regional Championship title since the year 2000?

26. Name this ancient brass instrument (below), much fancied by the Romans? 

27.  What are the first names of the Area test-pieces composers whose works we heard this year?
a) Calvert
b) Bourgeois 
c) Waespi
c) de Haan
d) Price

28.  Identify this major championship test-piece written in 1985 from the composer's notes and first sketches?

29.  What is the link between KNDS Fairey Band’s performance at Brass in Concert this year, with a test-piece by Howard Snell, and a composition by Morton Feldman called ‘Rothko Chapel’ to be found in Houston, Texas? 

30. Which city will host the 2026 European Brass Band Championships?  

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So if like us you value a strong, independent perspective on the brass band world - then why not consider becoming a supporter and help make our future and that of a burgeoning brass band movement more secure.

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