Bands set for Scottish Festival of Brass

There will be two days of great contesting action in Perth on the weekend as bands lock musical horns to try and claim the Scottish Open and Band Supplies Scottish Challenge titles.

Bands from both sides of Hadrian's Wall will head to Perth this weekend for what promises to be an exciting Scottish Festival of Brass event.

Hosted at Perth Concert Hall, Saturday will see 14 Championship contenders, headed by defending champion Whitburn, look to claim the Scottish Open title. The following day 13 bands will compete in the Band Supplies Scottish Challenge contest.

The adjudicators for both contests are Steven Mead and Paul Holland.

Scottish celebration

In continuation of their celebration of the music of composers who have written specifically for events hosted in Scotland over the years, the Open rivals have been given the choice of five works from the pens of Kenneth Downie ('St Magnus'); Howard Snell ('Gallery'); Simon Dobson ('...and when the river told...'); Peter Meechan ('Macbeth') and Rory Boyle ('Muckle Flugga').

The Scottish Challenge contenders will perform their own selection of own-choice works.

Youth development

The Festival will also continue its focus on youth development with Chris Fower, Director of Creativity & Innovation at the Warwick Music Group, leading a workshop (9.30am) demonstrating how to use the pBuzz and contemporary music to engage and inspire a new generation of brass players.

This will be followed by short concerts by the Coalburn Bronze and National Youth Brass Band of Scotland (NYBBS) Children's bands.

All the Saturday morning events will be livestreamed from Perth on the SBBA YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/5CiVKNzbaOc

Vox pop

In addition, Iona McVicar and Laura Carter will be recording 'vox pop' opinions on how their banding and musical experiences for a new 'SBBA Speaks' podcast which is to be aired on 4th December.

Scottish Open and Challenge Section adjudicators' remarks and results will be livestreamed on both days at: https://youtu.be/J5NA_rWnwBk on Saturday and https://youtu.be/tDk37YSDK48 on Sunday.

Because of the current Covid situation, Perth Concert Hall has been fully risk assessed with a number of protocols put in place for the weekend for the protection of players and patrons, including the use of face coverings, hand sanitising and social distancing.

In addition, the order of play in both the Scottish Open and the Scottish Challenge competitions has been pre-drawn to enable bands to stagger their arrivals (and departures) from the venue.

Competing bands:

Scottish Open:

Adjudicators: Steven Mead and Paul Holland

Bon-Accord Silver (Adam Cooke)
Bo'ness & Carriden (Nigel Boddice MBE)
Dalmellington (Gary Williams)
Easington Colliery (Ray Farr)
East London Brass (Jayne Murrill)
Elland Silver (Daniel Brooks)
1st Old Boys (Stephen Cairns)
Fishburn (Lewis Wilkinson)
Kirkintilloch Band (David Roberts)
Kirkintilloch Kelvin (David Thornton)
Reg Vardy (Steve Malcolm)
the cooperation band (Mike Fowles)
Unison Kinneil (Raymond Tennant)
Whitburn (Prof Nicholas Childs)

Band Supplies Scottish Challenge: