Arklow Shipping Silver Band

European Brass Band Championships 2004

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Scotland

 

The Band travelled to Glasgow on Thursday 29th April and stayed at the Novotel in the city centre. A full practise was held on the Friday afternoon in a nearby church hall.

The draw for the B Section was held at 8.30 a.m. on the Saturday morning and Arklow were drawn second.

The full draw was: -

1)     Austrian Brass Band (Austria)

2)     Arklow Shipping Silver Band (Ireland)

3)     Torshavn Brass Band (Faroe Islands)

4)     Pfeffersberg Brass Band, (Italy)

 

The competition started at 9.30 a.m. and despite the early hour there was a good audience in the magnificent Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

Arklow’s Competition program was: -

1)     Rhapsody for Brass (D. Goffin)

2)     Airs and Dances (Alan Fernie): Test Piece

3)     Demelza (H.Nash): Soprano Solo: Anthony McCarthy

4)     Toccata from Suite Gothique (L. Boellmann)

 

The general consensus amongst the players after the performance was that we gave a good performance of all 4 pieces. Listening to the other Bands we knew that this would be a tight competition with very little between each Band.

Thanks to the wonders of the computer age we received copied of our performance on CD from Doyen Recording 30 minutes after we performed. Our performance was also captured on DVD by SP & S Ltd. and these will be available in a few months.

The results were not announced until after the Gala Concert on the Saturday Night. This was a magnificent concert and the line-up was as follows: -

1)     National Youth Brass Band of Scotland,

2)     Yorkshire Building Society Band, European Champions 2003

3)     BBC Young Brass Soloist of the year, Katrina Marzella

4)     House of Edgar Shotts & Dykehead Pipe Band with the Kirkintilloch Band

The Gala Concert was aptly compered by Frank Renton.

The results for the Section B were: -

1. Torshavn Brass Band:           91
2. Brass Band Pfeffersberg:     90
3. Arklow Shipping Silver:          87
4. Austrian Brass Band:             85

 

While we were disappointed with the result we have to say that better bands beat us and we can also look forward to competing again in 2005 in Gronigen, Netherlands.

Overall this was a wonderful weekend, especially for the Brass Band enthusiast. The Scottish Brass Band Association must be congratulated on the organisation and running of this event and also credit once again to the European Brass Band Association (EBBA) who are the driving force behind all the European Brass Band Championships.

A Final word of congratulations to the Yorkshire Building Society Band for their sixth win in a row. They were outstanding.

The full line up of the Arklow Band was: -

Musical Director

 John Bonner B.Mus.

Cornet Section

Soprano Cornet

Anthony McCarthy

Principal Cornet

Tommy Byrne

Solo Cornets

Stephen Smith (Junior Band Conductor, Committee Member)

Didier Senecal

Tommy Murray

Neal O’Kennedy

Repiano

Peter McDowell (Committee Member & Librarian)

2nd Cornets

Michael Furlong

Lisa Tyrrell

Edward O’Neill

3rd Cornets

John Mernin

Sarah Ford

Horn Section

Flugel

Eamonn O'Reilly (Committee Member)

Solo Horn

Kevin Fitzgerald (Webmaster)

1st Horn

2nd Horn

Lorraine Lee

Aoife Kinsella (Committee Member & PRO)

Euphoniums/Baritones

Solo Euphonium

James Connolly (Committee Member)

Second Euphonium

Dick Lyons (Chairman)

Solo Baritone

Tracy Byrne

Second Baritones

Colm O'Regan

Trombone Section

First Trombone

Liam Walsh

Pat Bass

Second Trombone

Esme McDowell

Bass Trombones

Catriona O’Brien

Bass Section

Solo EEb Bass

Eilish Nolan (Committee Officer, Secretary)

EEb Basses

Paul Lyons

Brian Harty

BBb Basses

Eddie O'Brien

Michael Kennedy

Cillian Wood

Percussion

Principal Percussion

Brian O'Reilly (Vice-chairman)

Percussion

Brian O'Regan

David O'Regan

 

 

4BarsRest Retrospective - First Section

An enjoyable First Section Contest provided further evidence that the European brass band movement is alive and well, but just needs a little bit of a helping hand.

Adjudicators:
Tom Brevik (Norway), Nigel Boddice (Scotland & GB), Johan de Meij
(Netherlands)

Music:
A concert programme chosen from a set list of works. Included in each programme, a new commission from Alan Fernie "Airs and Dances"

"Airs and Dances"
A short suite loosely based on fiddle tunes composed by the famous Scots fiddler Neil Gow, from a collection published in 1830 and "respectfully dedicated to the Noblemen and gentlemen of the royal Caledonian Hunt". The tunes used in the suite are "Mrs. Fleming of Moness", "Lamentation for Jas. Moray Esq. of Abercarney and "Simon Brodie"

Order of Play
Austrian Band (Uwe Koller) - Austria
Arklow Shipping Silver Band (John Bonnor) - Ireland
Torshavn Brass Band (Ove Olsen) - Faeroe Islands
Pfeffersberg Brass Band (Bernhard Reifer) - Italy

Introduction:
Following an early 8.00am draw, a decent audience making the hall about ¼ to full gave compère David Cunnigham a rousing cheer as he gave a short welcome to all the bands in their respective languages.

Arklow Shipping Silver Band perhaps chose the most traditional programme from the list of set works and really set themselves a stern challenge to take the title. A programme selection of Rhapsody in Brass (Dean Goffin), Demelza (Hugh Nash) and Toccata from Suite Gothique (arr. Ball).

Rhapsody in Brass is a challenging work and whilst not error free, the first movement had a few too many clips perhaps, the band had a warm balanced ensemble. The euphonium had a good day and the soprano played very well which he then went on to further demonstrate in Demelza when he stood to take the solo in a nicely weighted performance.

Their performance of Airs and Dances separated these two works and whilst the simply stated opening movement and nicely interrelated slower section worked well, benefiting from some terrific euphonium work, the final section just got away from them feeling somewhat rushed and untidy.

Toccata from Suite Gothique once more proved a real test. The basses made a tremendous account of their part and it was only a sticky section before the final cornet statement that tripped them up.

Overall this section presented an interesting and varied standard of performance and it again gave an opportunity for emerging and non-championship bands a platform in European competition.