Whitburn and Lochgelly in the prizes at the Cory Band Online Championships
Friday 2 October 2020Congratulations to Whitburn Band and Lochgelly Band on their success in the Cory Band Online Championships 2020.
The championships took the form of a virtual contest for brass bands, broadcast live on YouTube over four days in September. The competition featured 68 bands from across the world performing pre-recorded video performances.
Whitburn came second in the championship section behind the American ensemble Fountain City while, in the second section, Lochgelly took first place.
“We were pleased with the reaction to our programme at the contest,” commented Whitburn Band member Graham Fraser. “The judges gave us great comments – you could tell they really enjoyed our performance.”
The band also received many comments from fans around the world who have visited Whitburn’s social media streams to enjoy even more of their online shows. The band’s programme has had over 15,000 views since the end of the contest.
Whitburn (above) were also thrilled at principal cornetist Chris Bradley being awarded the Best Soloist prize and receiving the Best Section prize (basses).
You can watch their performance of Hawaii Five-O, cornet solo First Light and Toccata from Suite Gothique at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrudkpDZnG0&t=14885s (at 4:07:10 on the time counter).
Whitburn is now looking forward to more online projects and to getting back into the band hall as soon as it is safe to do so.
Lochgelly’s second section winning programme comprised El Es El Senor, cornet solo Share My Yoke and Balkan Dance. You can watch their performance at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGS7GsFnyEA at 4:18:30
The only other Scottish band to take part, Kingdom Brass, came ninth in the first section, playing When Kingdom Comes and You’ll Never Walk Alone – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JCYA8pBxkI&list=RD3JCYA8pBxkI&start_radio=1&t=46 at 4:09:25
