Brass in Concert 2025: Highlights

Liv Appleton
20 hours ago
7 min read

My Favourite Moments from Brass in Concert 2025

Well it’s taken a couple of days, but my brain has just about managed to recover from the eleven incredible bands that graced the stage of The Glasshouse at Brass in Concert this weekend. From creative staging to unique storylines and, of course, outstanding music - there was so much to commend from the programmes presented during the event. I’m glad I wasn’t adjudicating!

Thankfully, I had the much nicer job of reporting on all of the action from the stage and, although I thoroughly enjoyed watching every programme, here are some of my highlights from the day.

The Cory Band - Back to the Future

The Welsh powerhouse opened the contest in style with their Back to the Future set - with a twist! In this version, it wasn’t Marty McFly’s parents that we had to ensure got together, it was the parents of Jean-Baptiste Arban, without whom, banding wouldn’t exist! I really appreciated this fun incorporation of our world within the theme and the concept of Tom, in his last act as the Principal Cornet of the Cory Band, having to get up to 88 notes per second to power the time machine.

In true Cory Band style, they finished off their set with a fun arrangement of a well known pop classic, this time it was the well-known tune from Huey Lewis, made famous in the Back to the Future film - The Power of Love.

Brass Band Schoonhoven - The Red Bike

Not only was this my highlight of the entire event, this programme was one of the highlights of my banding year! What an absolute joy this programme was!

Where do I begin?!

The fun concept of a band member getting stuck inside of the video footage and us having to follow his journey through the Netherlands, with musical stops along his way back to The Glasshouse, was inspired!

THE F1 SECTION! Oh my days, hearing the F1 theme (which I absolutely love!) played by a brass band, was just a peak moment - but watching the band create an F1 car out of various props and percussion instruments, was hilarious and very entertaining.

The standout solo moment came from the band’s principal cornet, Dennis Vork, who performed a gorgeous arrangement from Rogier Bosman of the Don McLean classic, Starry, Starry Night - a beautiful tribute to the Dutch painter, Vincent Van Gogh. The arrangement was absolutely stunning and played so beautifully, I was moved to tears.

Then we moved into a work that reminded me why I love Brass in Concert so much, as it offers the opportunity to be introduced to unique works that you may not hear anywhere else. I mean, where else are you going to hear of a work entitled, Coffee in the Red Light - Double Espresso with a Side of Paranoid Schizophrenia and Narcissistic Rage…and Chocolate Sprinkles?! With clever uses of dissonance, overlapping rhythms and ominous sound effects, the piece musically illustrated the stages that one may experience if you decide to partake in a baked good in Amsterdam that contains an extra…green... ingredient. From the initial mellow calmness to anxiety and delusion - it was a musical rollercoaster of a trip, which combined with the lighting made it even more evocative. Despite feeling like I might need to go for a lie down in a darkened room afterwards, I thought it was a brilliant work!

I do hope we get to see Brass Band Schoonhoven again next year - I fell in love with their creativity, innovativeness and talent and I want to see more!

The Flowers Band - The Heist

I really enjoyed this programme. You can tell that the band had really put a lot of thought, not only into the programme content, but the staging and even the build up of the storyline with the use of social media before the contest. I especially appreciated that the band had come up with an entirely original storyline for the programme, rather than relying on a particular theme or an existing movie/book - not an easy thing to do! To conceptualise a storyline and set it to original music was a brilliant display of creativity and innovation.

I thought the composers they worked with, including Andrea Price, Daniel Hall and Lucy Pankhurst, were perfect choices for this kind of programme, as their cinematic, evocative writing styles really lended themselves well to the action-packed programme theme. However, as much as I enjoyed listening, I’m not sure I’d want to play it! This was a challenging programme of epic proportions, and you could see that each and every band member, especially the soloists, had put in the hours getting the music ready to perform.

It was a stand out performance for me.

The GUS Band - Love Beyond the Rose

This was a colourful, fun and polished performance that had all the production value of a musical theatre production! Similar to their Wizard of Oz set, I really appreciated the amount of effort that the soloists go to when embodying their particular character - from the frilled finery of Cogsworth and Lumiere to the mirror-wielding vanity of Gaston.

The music in the programme, which was composed/arranged by the band’s MD, Christopher Bond, was absolutely exceptional. When it comes to programmes like this, it can be easy to rely on soundtracks from the well-known films - which, as a Disney fan, I wouldn’t have been too disappointed. Indeed, Bond’s arrangement of Be Our Guest, was a highlight of the whole day for me! However, to go to the effort to conceptualise new works to tell the story, was something I massively appreciated. Every single piece was a hit, in my opinion, but especially the solo moments. Mirror, Mirror, I’m the Star, performed by the band’s Soprano Cornet, Jack Wilson, starring as Gaston was a particular highlight - performed with swagger and humour. The energetic, Fire and Fury, was also a highlight from this programme and would make a cracking conclusion to any concert programme!

A finely-tuned, well-produced programme that wouldn’t be out of place in one of the many performance spaces in Disney World!

Brighouse and Rastrick Band - Dracula: A Shadow Through Time

I felt like we saw a completely different side to the current British Open Champions, in their gothic, black outfits and some of the fellows in the band channelling Adam Ant, in their ‘guy-liner’. As the last band of the day, taking to the stage at 8pm, the band did not disappoint with their brilliantly produced, dramatic portrayal of one of literature's most iconic characters - who was brought to life (well, reanimated, is probably the right term) by the band’s virtuosic solo euphonium, Chris Robertson.

Carrying Chris on in his coffin, as part of a New Orleans funeral marching band ‘bit’ was inspired and him making his entrance, bedecked in Victorian attire and blood red contact lenses, was too cool. The programme was a gothic fantasy filled with classics, such as Bach’s Toccatta and Fugue in D Minor and Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain. It was Ian McElligott’s composition entitled A New Kind of Empire, which was an epic mash up of the two pieces above and (if I’m not mistaken) the theme from Tim Burton’s Batman written by Danny Elfman - all set to a rock beat - that was a highlight of the whole day for me!

The cooperation band - ‘La Premiere’

The cooperation band, under the baton of Katrina Marzella-Wheeler, transported us to Paris in the year 1913 for the premiere of Stravinsky’s revolutionary ballet, The Rite of Spring. Similarly to the fateful premiere, the cooperation band’s programme got the audience’s attention - but, unlike Stravinsky, it was for all of the right reasons! From the incredible storytelling of actor, Elizabeth McNally, whose performance as the alluring Coco Chanel, brought the story to life, to the powerful programme filled with custom commissions from composers, such as Lucy Pankhurst and Simon Dobson - this was a carefully crafted and expertly executed programme.

It was the band’s final piece, an arrangement by Andrew Duncan of Hymne a L’amour, by Marguerite Monnot that I think sealed this performance as a favourite with the audience. It’s unique opening setting for flugel (Stephanie Kennedy, who sounded absolutely stunning and deservedly won the Best Flugel award) and marimba (performed by the talented Paula O’Malley) was absolutely spellbinding and the emotion created both with the warmth of the band sound and the stylistic choices of their MD, left quite a few of us with a tear in our eye!

Absolutely magic and a worthy winner!

Aldbourne Band - Through the Wardrobe

Although it sadly didn’t come in the prizes (this is why I couldn’t adjudicate this contest, I’d be dishing out winners trophies left, right and centre - it would end up like the Oprah Winfrey show - you get a trophy, and you get a trophy!) I had to mention Aldbourne’s fantastical and nostalgic programme, based on the magical tale of Narnia - I absolutely adored it.

Narrated by Mr Tumnus, played with such character and heart, by Nigel Crunden and featuring incredible works by Daniel Hall, Etienne Crausaz and Thierry Deleruyelle, this was a musically stunning programme. I was pretty much on the verge of tears (for all of the right reasons) during the programme - particularly during the cornet solo A Magic Deeper Than Love written by Daniel Hall and performed beautifully by Richard Hughes, which depicted Aslan’s decision to sacrifice himself. It was the voice of Aslan that tipped me over the edge before the final piece and I ended up having to quickly hunt for my tissues to stop my eyes from leaking!

This programme transported me back to being about eleven years old and hiding a torch under my pillow so I could secretly stay up long after my bedtime and go on adventures with the Pevensie children in the magical land of Narnia.

It was such a beautiful performance.

A Brilliantly Run Event

I just want to say a huge shout out and thank you to Jess Wilson and members of the BBE and BiC team who work so hard to make this event one of the best-run events in the banding calendar. Hosted in a fantastic location and with so much thought put into the event to ensure audience members are entertained from when they first walk in to when they stumble out after the last song is played at the after-party, this is an absolutely incredible event and it’s no surprise it sold out!

I cannot recommend getting a ticket to this event highly enough! It is a cracking day out that offers the chance to see the most creative and innovative performances you will see from a brass band (it truly is mind-blowing), discover new music and socialise with other banders and banding fans!

It really is the hottest ticket in banding for a reason!

I’m already looking forward to next year!