British Open Brass Band Championships 2025: Preview
- Liv Appleton
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Everything You Need to Know About the 2025 British Open Brass Band Championships
September is just around the corner, which means it’s not long until some of the UK’s leading brass bands head to Symphony Hall to compete at the oldest brass band contest - the British Open.
Whether you’re heading to the contest, watching from home or just fancy finding out a bit more about the contest and its competitors - here is everything you need to know!
Overview: British Open 2025
The British Open is one of the most iconic and prestigious brass band contests of the year. It’s the oldest event of its kind, with the first contest being held in 1853 at the Belle Vue Gardens in Manchester. The contest was moved to its current home, Symphony Hall in Birmingham, in 1998.
Now in its 171st year, on Saturday 6th September, the contest will welcome back 18 of the best bands our community has to offer. A day of incredible music making and jaw-dropping performances is guaranteed. The only question is - who will take the title?
British Open Test Piece 2025
The British Open will, once again, offer the world premiere of a brand new work, commissioned especially for the contest. This year the test piece comes from the pen of Stephen Roberts and is inspired by Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet.
‘Star Crossed Lovers’ is the fourth work written by Stephen Roberts to be showcased at the British Open, following ‘Arabian Nights’ (2013), ‘Swan Lake’ (2015) and his arrangement of Holst’s The Planets (2003).
The piece takes its title from a line in the prologue to Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ - ‘A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life’ - and is based on Prokofiev’s score for the ballet of the same name. The work lasts around 16 minutes and features emotive melodies and dramatic moments with three cadenzas that test the technical and musical dexterity of a band’s soloists.
Which Bands are Competing at the British Open?
The 18 bands taking to the stage at Symphony Hall are as follows:
Aldbourne - Glyn Williams
Amersham - Paul Fisher
Black Dyke - Nicholas Childs
Brass Band Treize Etoiles - Frédéric Théodoloz
Brighouse and Rastrick - David King
Carlton Main Frickley Colliery - Allan Withington
Cory - Philip Harper
EverReady - David Morton
Flowers - Paul Holland
Foden’s - Russell Gray
Grimethorpe Colliery - Michael Bach
Hammonds - Morgan Griffiths
KNDS Fairey - Philip Chalk
Leyland - Daniel Brooks
Oldham Lees - John Collins
The Cooperation Band - Katrina Marzella - Wheeler
Tredegar - Ian Porthouse
Whitburn - Luc Vertommen
Who is Likely to Win the British Open 2025?
Now, when it comes to predictions - this is a music competition, so it obviously all depends on what happens on the day and what tickles the adjudicator’s fancy.
However, what is brass band contesting without a bit of speculation?
Mathematically speaking, the top five bands at the competition in terms of world rankings and overall points are:
Band | Conductor | Current Standing | Points |
Cory | Philip Harper | 2 | 1032.85 |
Foden's | Russell Gray | 3 | 1003.92 |
Brass Band Treize Etoiles | Frédéric Théodoloz | 4 | 946.6 |
Flowers | Paul Holland | 6 | 739.99 |
Black Dyke | Nicholas Childs | 7 | 645.89 |
When it comes to performance trends at the British Open, this is how the picture looks:
Band | Conductor | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | Total |
Brass Band Treize Etoiles | Frederic Theodoloz | 1 | - | - | 1 |
Foden's | Russell Gray | 5 | 1 | 2 | 8 |
Black Dyke | Nicholas Childs | 3 | 5 | 8 | 16 |
Cory | Philip Harper | 11 | 6 | 4 | 21 |
Flowers | Paul Holland | 2 | 8 | 12 | 22 |
Brass Band Treize Etoiles are in a good position after winning last year’s contest in their debut year and holding a spot in the top 5 brass bands in the world this year.
Foden’s have been the most consistent with consecutive top 5 placings in the last three years
Black Dyke are the next consistent with consecutive top 10 placings in the last three years
Cory and Flowers could surprise us this year with an equally mixed bag of one top five placing, one top 10 placing and a ‘below 10th’ placing in the last three years.
I suppose the real indicator is how the top 5 bands have performed in test piece contests.. This table shows how the top ranking bands have fared in their last 4 ‘test piece’ contests (excluding Entertainment contests - like Brass in Concert).
Band | Conductor | Contest 1 | Contest 2 | Contest 3 | Contest 4 | Total |
Flowers | Paul Holland | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
Black Dyke | Nicholas Childs | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 8 |
Brass Band Treize Etoiles | Frederic Theodoloz | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 12 |
Foden's | Russell Gray | 12 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 20 |
Cory | Philip Harper | 4 | 3 | 4 | 11 | 22 |
Flowers have been the most consistent for top 5 positions in the last 12 months with Foden’s and Cory experiencing a slight dip below the top 10.
Based purely on these maths, it would be a fair prediction for any of these five to take the title this year.
However, this is music - and we know that this isn’t how music works.
Ultimately, it’ll be down to how well the piece suits the bands’ technical and musical abilities, the interpretation of their respective conductors and whether or not the adjudicators appreciate their rendition of the work.
British Open: Audience Guide
Date: Saturday 6th September
Venue: Symphony Hall Birmingham
Time: 10:00am
No. Bands: 18
Tickets for the 2025 British Open Brass Band Championships are still on sale and can be purchased at the B:Music website.
For those who can’t make the contest in person, Wobplay will be streaming the contest live for subscribers. Visit the Wobplay website for more information.
And for those who like to follow along on social media - keep an eye on the It’s Not a Trumpet socials, as I will be covering the event throughout the day! Not a follower? Check out the links below and let’s connect!
If you’re a geek like me and you want a study score to follow along with on the day, they can be purchased on the day of the contest or in advance from the composer’s website.
See you there!
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