Questions concerning the future long term purpose of the Conductor, Soloist and Composer competitions, Challenge Section, EU cultural funding applications, prize money, player registration, youth age limits, sponsorship contracts and even UK Brexit were raised at the EBBA Press Conference this year.

Open and lively debate

EBBA President Ulf Rosenberg, Music Commission Chairman, Paul Hindmarsh and Vlamo Chief Executive Officer Jan Matthys gave interesting and pertinent answers for an hour on a variety of topics in what was an open and lively debate.

In response to the question concerning the long term purpose of the 'side events' such as the Conductor, Soloist and Composer Competitions, Ulf Rosenberg felt that they were 'about developing the level and quality' of the participants in each category. He added that he saw them as becoming 'even more strongly linked' to the overall development of the Championships and the brass band movement as a whole.

Linked success

He cited the success enjoyed by the likes of Simon Dobson and Kevin Houben (past winners of the Composer event) in having works performed as the set test and own choice selections this year. In addition former European Solo Champion Raf van Looveren was conducting the European Youth Band, and former Conductor Competition winner Jesper Juul Sorensen was directing a band in the Championship Section.

Paul Hindmarsh also hoped that in future 'an educational element' could also be included in the overall prize packages — including masterclass tuition, rather than just cash, to help the successful participants in their long term artistic progression and to add 'extra value' to the events.

Funding

When asked about future applications for potential EU Cultural funding, it was revealed that following two unsuccessful past bids, at present there were no plans to submit a further application. It was felt the emphasis on funding support was now focused on new European-wide initiatives rather than well- established organisations such as EBBA.

However, one such exciting new development, explained by Jan Matthys, was the creation of a downloadable smart phone 'app' by Vlamo. This would see members of the audience voting for their favourite performance at the current and future events in each section — making for much more interactive audience participation.

Challenge Section

The ethos of the Challenge Section was also questioned, with Ulf Rosenberg stating that the general feeling was that it was helping to develop a brass band culture in new countries.

It also still afforded an opportunity within EBBA Rules for an additional representative place to established member countries that could not send a Championship Section band to the event — such as Scotland this year.

Ulf Rosenberg did reveal that EBBA was looking to impose a new registration rule in time for the 2017 European Championship. This would see bands able to only field a line-up of players holding an appropriate national passport, or be bone-fide residents of the country they are representing (foreign student studying in that country would be exempt).

It was hoped this would in some way help to eliminate the growing concerns over the boosting of ranks with 'imported players' for the contest.

No change

In response to other questions, there were currently no proposals to change the Youth Band age limits, even though there was recognition of what actually constituted 'youth' varied between different member countries. The age limit for the European Youth would also remain at 21.

When asked, there were no plans at present to employ professional 'sponsorship-seeking' companies to find any additional major backers for the Championships.

Ulf Rosenberg neatly responded to a question over whether he felt there would be any difference in the sometimes fraught British/EBBA relationship following Brexit, by stating that 'EBBA stood to represent all European nations not just those in the EU'.

However, there was considerably less clarity over the question of the current structure of prize money and prize packages for each competition4BR

Prize packages

However, there was considerably less clarity over the question of the current structure of prize money and prize packages for each competition.

Following a rather opaque response by Ulf Rosenberg over what were the specific sponsorship arrangements with Besson and Geneva Instruments, he later confirmed that Besson would provide cash plus an instrument voucher as in previous years.

Geneva would provide instruments and cash in the Championship and Challenge Sections. Participating bands in the European Youth Contest would share 10,000 Euros, with one of the prize-winning bands receiving a weekend of training under the leadership of a Geneva Artist.