Thrilling weekend in store in Perth
The climax of this year’s Scottish Festival of Brass takes place in Perth this weekend with 15 bands taking part in Saturday’s main event, the 15th running of the Scottish Open.
American guests Fountain City Brass, fresh from a fantastic second place at last weekend’s Brass in Concert Championships at Gateshead, get proceedings underway this evening with a Gala Concert at St. Leonard’s Church in Perth. Tickets for the event, which can be purchased at the door, are only £5.00, while National Youth Brass Band of Scotland (NYBBS) players will gain free entry on production of their 2017 Summer Course wristbands. An entertaining evening is guaranteed with tuba virtuoso Les Neish joining Fountain City and MD Joe Parisi on stage.
Fountain City Brass in concert tonight
The weekend of music-making also sees a total of 28 youth and percussion ensembles taking to the stage in Perth Concert Hall in their respective sections. The Preparatory and Novice Sections will precede the ‘Open’ on Saturday morning while the Development, Percussion and Senior Section participants will showcase their talents on Sunday. The action on both days gets underway at 9.30am.
A variety of workshops will take place over the weekend involving Inner Tuba, John Doyle, Steven Mead and Les Neish while Salford University Graduation Band, conducted by Brett Baker, will perform prior to the announcement of results on both days.
Following last weekend’s thrilling Band Supplies Scottish Challenge contest, which saw Clackmannan District Brass and MD Paul McKelvie OBE edge out Anne Crookston’s Bathgate Band and Johnstone Band (Martyn Ramsay) to lift the title, there is much to look forward to in Perth this weekend.
Whitburn, after completing its hat-trick in 2016
Professor Nicholas Childs and Whitburn Band will have their sights set on a fourth consecutive title but the other 14 combatants from Scotland, England and the USA will have other ideas. The full list of competing bands at the Scottish Open, all of which must choose to perform one of four Peter Graham works, are as follows:
Bon Accord Silver (Stephen Malcolm)
Bo’ness and Carriden (Kevin Price)
Co-operative Funeralcare (Allan Ramsay)
Dalmellington (Richard Evans)
EYMS (Stig Mærsk)
Fishburn (David Hirst)
Fountain City Brass (Dr. Joseph Parisi)
Kirkintilloch (Ray Munday)
Kirkintilloch Kelvin (Charles Keenan)
Kingdom Brass (Paul Drury)
Rainford (Gareth Brindle)
Tullis Russell Mills (John Wallace CBE)
UNISON Kinneil (Raymond Tennant)
Whitburn (Professor Nicholas Childs)
Yorkshire Imperial DUT (Russell Gray)
Adjudicators: Steven Mead and Alan Morrison
