The 40th Belgian National Championships take place this weekend (24th/25th November) at the Cultural Centre Zwaneburg in Heist op den Berg, south of the historic city of Antwerp.

17 bands will take to the stage to try and impress the adjudication team of Dr Robert Childs, Mareika Gray and Ried Gilje, with a keen battle expected in the Championship Section, where defending champion Brass Band Willebroek faces stern opposition from six high quality rivals.

The winning band will represent the nation at the 2019 European Championship in Montreux.

Test piece interest

There is sure to be a great deal of interest in the test-pieces being played with the inventive Stan Nieuwenhuis providing the top section work, 'REwrite RElapse'.

The work initially gained second prize at the 2016/17 Swiss Brass Band Association Composition Competition and takes its inspiration from the seemingly eternal cycle of periods of peace and hope that invariably decay into polarisation and conflict — time and time and time again.

Harmony and discord

As the composer states: "REwrite stands for a renewed sense of hope; hoping to write the story again, but differently this time. RElapse stands for literally relapsing into bad habits time and again."

It is a work that is both filled with harmony and discord, peacefulness and tension.

The Championship Bands will also perform their own-choice works the following day, including 'A Tale As Yet Untold' (Sparke); 'Concerto for Brass Band' (Roland Szentpali); 'Fraternity' (Thierry Deleruyelle); 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth' (Peter Graham); 'No Man's Land' (Thierry Deleruyelle); 'Of Distant Memories' (Edward Gregson) and 'Vitae Aeterna Variations' (Alexander Comitas).

Six bands compete in the First Section on the set-work 'Thyellene (The Battle on the Heath) by Kevin Houben who wrote 'Where Angels Fly' for the European Championships in 2017, plus their own-choice selections, with just two in the Second and one each on the Third and Open events.

Their set-works are 'Suite for Brass' by Jan Segers plus own-choice in the Second, with own choice selections in the Third.

There is sure to be a great deal of interest in the test-pieces being played with the inventive Stan Nieuwenhuis providing the top section work, 'REwrite RElapse'4BR

Competitors:

Championship Section:

Brass Band Heist
Brass Band Leieland
Brassband Willebroek
Brassband Zele
Festival Brass Band
Kortrijk Brass Band
Nord-Limburgse Brass Band

First Section:

Brassband Bacchus
Brassband Ghent
Brassband Panta Rhei
Brassband Scaldis
Braz'Art
Kon. BB de Grensbewoners

Second Section:

Brassband Euterpe
Young Brassband Willebroek

Third Section:

Mercator Brass Band

Open Section:

A.M. Brass