Brass In The Park 2005
One of Scotland?s most popular annual brass band events will take place at Newtongrange on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th September with the ninth annual staging of Brass in the Park. The venue for the event will, as normal, be a huge tented village specially erected in Newtongrange Park, a few miles to the south of Edinburgh.
When the event began in 1997 little did anyone know how it would grow in terms of size and popularity with both bands and the general public. In 1997 Brass in the Park was a one day event attracting a handful of bands and a relatively small audience. Today the event is staged over three days. The contest is amongst the best supported in Scotland with this year a record entry of 27 bands. Audiences have grown steadily over the years resulting in Brass in the Park drawing by far the largest attendance of the general public at any annual brass band event in Scotland. The organisers are hopeful that, once more, record attendance figures will be achieved, surpassing the figure of around 5,000 who have attended in each of the last two years.
The event opens on the evening of Friday 2nd September with a Gala Concert featuring host band and current Scottish Champions, Newtongrange, conducted by Guest Conductor Bryan Allen. Guest Soloist is the former British Open Solo Champion, Alex Kerwin, who is flying in from New Zealand to appear at Brass in the Park and also to undertake an engagement with Black Dyke in Switzerland. Alex is the latest in a line of world class brass soloists who have appeared with Newtongrange Band at Brass in the Park with the likes of Alan Morrison, Russell Gray, Sheona White and David Childs having taken part in previous years.
Saturday 3rd September is contest day at Brass in the Park with bands in the open contest each required to perform a march, a hymn tune and an item featuring a soloist. Allan Ramsay will be adjudicating the bands in the main contest with Alex Kerwin responsible for selecting the winners of the separate awards for soloists. Winners in each of the last two years, United Co-op Yorkshire, are unable to defend their title this year as they are currently in the Championship Section and the contest, with its first prize of ?1,000 and total prize fund of ?3,000, is not open to Championship Section bands. There will however be English Challengers in the form of Northumbrian Water Ellington Colliery who are paying their first visit to the event.
Two years ago Brass in the Park introduced a separate Development Section contest for junior and training bands with an upper age limit of 16 years. This has proved to be a resounding success with many of the participating bands going on to take part in the revived Scottish Youth Brass Band Championships at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Three of the bands in the Development Section this year, Broxburn & Livingston Juniors, Langholm Juniors and Turriff Youth, will be taking part in a band competition for the very first time and all bands in this section can be assured of a warm welcome from the large and supportive Brass in the Park audience. The British Bandsman is also supporting this part of the event with a prize for the Best Instrumentalist in the Development Section, which will be adjudicated by the experienced Iain Davey.
A particular success of the event in recent years has been the Sunday afternoon programme which involves a combination of brass and other musical styles. The organisers hope to build on that success this year with another extensive Sunday afternoon line-up and a wide range of music on offer including pipe, ceilidh, jazz and big bands and an accordion orchestra in addition to brass bands. The Sunday programme will once more feature the extremely popular ?Praise in Brass? concert performed annually by Newtongrange Band and, as has now become a tradition, will conclude with the massed brass and pipe bands playing some well known favourites.
A Brass in the Park CD is to be launched at this year?s event. The CD was recorded only a few weeks after Newtongrange Band secured the Scottish Championship title earlier this year and the form which secured the Scottish title is demonstrated in many excellent performances on the CD. The recording sets out to reflect the music performed over the course of a typical Brass in the Park weekend with concert items, the march and hymn tune format of the contest, the Praise in Brass concert and the massed band finale all represented. Other participating groups are represented by the City of Edinburgh Pipe Band who join Newtongrange Band in a number of the finale items in addition to having their own ?solo? track and Loanhead Brass Roots who perform Alan Fernie?s Jungle Suite for junior bands, specially commissioned by the Brass in the Park Association last year. The new CD will be on sale throughout the weekend.
The Brass in the Park Association and Newtongrange Band express their thanks to everyone who has helped or contributed in any way in the huge logistical exercise required to stage this event. Particular thanks are due to The Len Thomson Charitable Trust, The Scottish Coal Industry Special Welfare Fund and the Dean Tavern Trust, which have all provided generous grants and to Midlothian Council which has provided tremendous support from the very beginning of the event in 1997.
Brass in the Park is a unique event. Nowhere else in the UK will you find brass band concerts, brass band contests for both senior and youth bands, solo contests, massed brass bands and contributions from many other types of musical ensembles all within the one event, not to mention a full programme of children?s entertainment and many other attractions designed to entice a family audience which would never usually consider attending a traditional band concert or contest. Tickets may be purchased at the gate each day and there is free car parking on site. Further information from Alan McLaren 0131 440 3830.
