A look back at 2018 and forwards to 2019

An exciting and rewarding musical year with commissions and premieres, projects and collaborations, and travel. Thanks so much to all - and looking forward to working with friends old and new in 2019. Happy New Year!

2018 highlights  included the world premiere of ‘Tide and Time’ by Foden’s Band, conductor Michael Fowles, and subsequent performances by the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain, conductor Bramwell Tovey; ‘Robin Robin’ by David Thornton and John Storey; the premiere of ‘Slate, Sea and Sky’ cornet and piano version by Richard Marshall and Ruth Webb, and the first playout from our collaborative RSVP Bhangra and brass band project, ‘Surtaal Symphony’. In this WW1 centenary year, four performances of ‘Silver Rose’, commissioned 2014 by Bristol Festival of Ideas - Lydbrook Band, conductor Ian Holmes, narrator Micha Lazarus (descendant of the poet Isaac Rosenberg), RNCM brass band, narrator Samuel Snowden, conductor Captain Peter Woffenden, and Newmains and District Brass Band with Katrina Marzella, narrator Ian Sommerville, conductor Michael Marzella. This year also featured publication by Wright and Round; rehearsal of ‘Slate, Sea and Sky’ by Cory Band and Tom Hutchinson, conductor Philip Harper; adjudicating at the Cory Band Composition Competition for the second year; collaboration with Maria, Anna and Guily Johannsen from Denmark’s Corde di Gioia, and representing the U.K. at the inaugural Fanfare Repertoire Festival in the Netherlands.
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2019 includes two recordings, the premiere in the Netherlands of a newly commissioned work for fanfare band, and ‘Ballad’ for piano by Clare Hammond. ‘The Story of St Alban’ for choir, children’s voices and ensemble will receive a repeat performance at St Alban’s Abbey, St Albans Choral Society, conductor George Vass, more Surtaal Symphony, and the last movement of ‘Silver Rose’ can be heard in a new version with massed saxhorns at Katrina Marzella and Helen Varley’s Saxhorn Fest 2019.