Brass Band Oberosterreich has retained the Austrian National title at the Brucknerhaus in Linz.

Victory enables the band to proudly represent the home nation at the European Championships back at the venue in 2026. They already secured its place in Stavanger to compete at the 2025 European Championships by winning the 2023 national contest.

High quality

In a high quality battle with rivals R.E.T. Brass Band, their finely worked renditions of the set-work, 'The Lost Circle' and their own-choice selection of Sand & Stars' saw them secure a third consecutive and their eighth since the event was first held in 2014.

Led by MD Gunther Reisegger, Brass Band Oberosterreich secured a vital two-point margin over their rivals on the set-work, with Andreas Lackner's band closing the gap to just a point with exciting rendition of their own-choice of 'Trance'.

Exciting and superb

The judges were certainly impressed calling their performances "exciting" and "outstanding" with "superb soloists" and "wonderful sound and texture".

MD Gunther Reisegger told 4BR: "We are very happy indeed. The performances we gave we excellent and my thanks go to the players. It was good to read the comments about the band by such a distinguished panel of international judges.

Now we prepare for an important concert with our great friend Lito Fontana and for a project we are doing with the composer Johan de Meij".

Close race

Reflecting on their success on their Facebook page the band stated: "It was an exciting competition, and we congratulate our friends at R.E.T. Brass Band on their impressive performance. It was a really a close race!

Many thanks to everyone who supported us — let's go to Linz 2026!"

The contest was part of the larger OBV Festival weekend.

Result:
Championship Section:

Set Work: The Lost Circle (Jan van der Roost)
Adjudicators: Dr Robert Childs, Jaroslav Sip, Geir Ulseth
Set Work/Own Choice = Total

1. Brass Band Oberostereich (Gunter Reisegger): 95/92 = 187
2. R.E.T. Brass Band (Andreas Lackner): 93/93 = 186