Success in the British Open for Youth Brass Band
The band with Jonathan Leedale conducting
Reporter: Stuart Littleford
For the first time, the Oldham Music Centre Youth Brass Band made an appearance in the British Open Brass Band Festival.
This year it was held at the Guildhall in Preston in January and was an invitation only contest.
The top 12 Youth Brass Bands in the country are invited to take part. The band had been preparing for several weeks in order to pull together a special themed programme of music based on space and time. The band opened its programme with the theme from Star Trek followed by pieces from Star Wars, Dr Who and many other well-known films and TV programmes.
The 20 minute programme was linked with snippets from other items that included David Bowie’s Starman and Telstar. The adjudicator said in her summing up that the standard was incredibly high but the prizewinning bands were a cut above the rest and would not have looked or sounded out of place in an adult contest. The Oldham Youth Brass Band won the Crook and Heap Trophy for achieving a superb 3rd place in a highly competitive field.
Their conductor, Jonathan Leedale, from the Oldham Music Centre told Saddleworth News: “I’m very proud of our young players. We were competing against some excellent county bands with large catchment areas. This is a marvellous result for Oldham. Our ensemble playing was excellent and I must pay tribute to a number of our soloists who all excelled themselves”
The British Open Titles were founded by the great bandsman Harry Mortimer and are still administered by his family. The adult British Open was held at Symphony Hall in Birmingham and the Oldham Youth Brass Band’s adult partner band, Brighouse & Rastrick, were placed 2nd.
Author: Jude Gidney - Editor
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