A national competition which aims to promote talented young composers has been won by 17-year old Daniel Hall.

News

Daniel recently made the banding news after he conducted no less than seven performances of his works with the St Austell Band at a concert in Truro.

The talented musician entered the Nock Deighton Challenge, an annual competition sponsored by Shropshire estate agents, Nock Deighton, as part of the Ironbridge Gorge Brass Band Festival, with his march ‘Invaders from the North’ and his fanfare, ‘Lance’, gaining first and second place.

Jaguar performance

His winning work will now be performed by the Jaguar Land Rover Band at the Festival held at the Museum of Iron at the world heritage site of Coalbrookdale (above) in July.

Runners-up Callum Bain from Perthshire and Adam Hebditch from Rutland will also have the opportunity to hear their compositions played by other bands.

High standard

This year’s event, which attracted entries from all over Britain, was judged by Dennis Masters, who said: "The standard was very high and it was a great privilege to be asked to judge works of such quality.

The composers of the winning entries in particular showed a high level of understanding of the brass band genre."

The standard was very high and it was a great privilege to be asked to judge works of such qualityDennis Masters

Augers well

Neil Fury, Chair of the Gorge Brass Band Festival committee, added: "Although the age limit for the competition was raised this year, it is interesting to see that all the winning entrants are under 18.

This augurs well for the future of brass band composition when such quality is produced by young people like these."