What's On

Six of the world’s leading brass brands, twelve world premières, nine outstanding soloists, plus the next generation of brass musicians – we can’t wait to welcome you to The RNCM International Brass Band Festival this January. View the full festival line-up.

The Cory Band are 140 years old in 2024, and they are celebrating their anniversary by playing a new commission by the band’s associate composer, Christopher Bond, as well as reviving a centenary commission of theirs, Philip Sparke’s The Year of the Dragon. Sparke is quoted, ‘At the time I wrote The Year of the Dragon, Cory had won two successive National Finals and I set out to write a virtuoso piece to display the talents of this remarkable band to the full.’ It did just that in 1984 and will once again at the 2024 festival.

Glyn Williams then joins Cory for a music portrayal of a young solider in World War I in Philip Harper’s Euphonium Concerto before a world première by Macedonian-born Mihailo Trandafilovski. A very personal piece by Dorothy Gates written when her father died precedes Oliver Waespi’s Other Lives, inspired by fragments of music by Franz Schubert. Waespi says, ‘This piece is as much a tale of imaginary lives, or maybe certain stages of a single life in its timeline, as it is an exploration of how opposed emotional states can be expressed by morphing the same basic musical material into different shapes.’

Christopher Bond Soaring The Heights (world première)
Philip Harper Euphonium Concerto*
Mihailo Trandafilovski Dance No 1 (world première)
Oliver Waespi Other Lives
Dorothy Gates The Living God
Philip Sparke The Year of the Dragon 

Philip Harper conductor
Glyn Williams euphonium*
Cory Band

Tickets:
£9 (Under 26s and Students) + £1 Booking Fee
£18 + £1 Booking Fee

Festival Discount:
Automatically receive a 10% discount when you purchase tickets to 3 or more RNCM International Brass Band Festival events (excluding free events). Please note that this discount only applies when booking events as part of a single transaction. A maximum booking fee of £3 applies to all transactions.

This event will end at approximately 4.15pm.