August 17, 2022
Tredegar's appearances at this year's BBC Proms gained widespread critical acclaim - but now they've blown the doors open can anyone else follow them in?
August 15, 2022
Mark Bromley, CEO of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain, provides a personal insight into the ethos that is now firmly embedded into the organisation that has just celebrated its 70th anniversary.
August 14, 2022
Around 100 global delegates came to Swansea this year for the International Brass Band Summer School course led by Prof Nicholas Childs - and found a warm welcome to go with the music making...
July 18, 2022
The death of Bramwell Tovey has been marked by remarkable tributes from across the musical world.
July 11, 2022
Tim Mutum explores the life of the mercurial Alex Mortimer, the self proclaimed ‘musical navvie’ regarded as a brass band genius.
June 22, 2022
Helen Varley examines the lasting appeal of the film, as a 'Live' approach to performance maintains the emotional connection to a familiar story.
June 7, 2022
Despite the challenges, the ineffable spirit of the Whit Friday march contests will hopefully be revived into joyful, supportive life as the greatest free show on earth returns.
May 30, 2022
Americans are at their best when thinking big - and enjoy it even more in making their vision a worldwide success.
May 13, 2022
4BR Editor Iwan Fox looks back at a European Championship Festival that in the end amounted to much more than just profit and loss...
May 6, 2022
The 100th anniversary Spring Festival takes place at Blackpool's Winter Gardens this weekend with some great tests of musical character to challenge the bands.
May 5, 2022
Images from the fantastic Gala Concert featuring the twin forces of Cory and Louis Dowdeswell and his band.
May 3, 2022
World of Brass broadcast the European Championships to the banding world on the Wobplay.com platform - with players and personalities interviewed on camera with their views and opinion.
May 3, 2022
Centenary Square hosted performances from bands and ensembles that entertained people visiting the Birmingham city centre.
April 28, 2022
Iwan Fox looks at the eleven own choice works that will be performed by the Championship Section bands on Sunday.
April 28, 2022
The European Championships are back - and although its attractions may look familiar, events and ambitions are very different...
April 20, 2022
Roy Terry reports from the Easter Course of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain and finds a new organisational culture being embraced and musically developed.
April 13, 2022
Tim Mutum looks back on the life and short but memorable brass band career of the conductor known to all as 'Jiggs'.
February 25, 2022
Regional Championship activity is reawakened this weekend - but banding in the UK cannot base its future survival by thinking it can live in a pre-Covid past.
February 23, 2022
In the second part of his major appraisal of Wilfred Heaton's masterpiece, Paul Hindmarsh identifies the hidden tunes the composer secreted within his score...
February 22, 2022
In the first part of his major appraisal of one of the brass band movement's most important works, Wilfred Heaton biographer Paul Hindmarsh goes in search of the hidden tunes to be found in 'Contest Music'.
January 5, 2022
The National Coal Board came into existence 75 years ago this month - and with it a connection to brass bands that remains to this day.
December 31, 2021
These are the conductors and players we've picked to perform in our 2021 Band of the Year line-up - if we were ever lucky enough to get them together for a one off performance.
December 29, 2021
Mark Bromley, CEO of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain talks to 4BR about the organisation's response to the challenges posed in 2021, and how it is now looking forward to its 70th anniversary year in 2022.
December 27, 2021
Antibes Conservatoire of Music & Drama has a new state of the art concert hall - but it is a brass band that is being promoted as a star attraction for students.
December 26, 2021
We have a fantastic prize package on offer for the person who gets the right answers in our festive quiz - a Besson Prodige cornet plus a set of mutes and a pack of music worth...
December 17, 2021
The long list of 4BR annual award nominations that will be considered by our panel of judges has been released.
December 15, 2021
Iwan Fox looks back on the life of a remarkable musician whose brief compositional association with the brass band movement has almost been lost over time.
November 18, 2021
As the brass band entertainers take to the stage at Brass in Concert this weekend, we look at the remarkable musical life of the pioneering female cornet star Daisy Squelch.
October 27, 2021
Five memorable winning performances captured live from the stage of the Royal Albert Hall.
October 10, 2021
Artistic Director, Paul Hindmarsh offers a curator's perspective on what will be on offer at the UK banding movement’s most important festival of repertoire in January.
October 7, 2021
Are we coming to an end to our banding history of the National Championships at the Royal Albert Hall? Hopefully not, but something needs to change.
September 30, 2021
Players and conductors from 19 bands hope to leave the Royal Albert Hall as contesting heroes on the weekend - at an event that has also overcome challenges of its own to be launched this year.
September 29, 2021
American composer Bruce Broughton provides a score from which bands need to find the right stuff of heroes to claim the National title at the Royal Albert Hall.
September 27, 2021
Petrol may have been in short supply on the weekend, but collective confidence certainly wasn't at the BBE Annual Conference.
September 21, 2021
The success of the National Championship weekend in Cheltenham has also highlighted the need to get the main banding empire builders to at least start talking to each other.
September 14, 2021
Banding returns to the National stage this weekend - diminished in numbers but hopefully not in stature. The future may be a different matter though...
September 12, 2021
Kingdom Brass, Annan Town and Langholm Silver will each make round trips of over 500 miles to try and return home with National titles.
September 7, 2021
With the First Section National Finals on the horizon, 4BR Editor Iwan Fox picks five performances of Edward Gregson's 1977 seminal work to add to your listening pleasure.
September 1, 2021
Tim Mutum looks back on the life and career of a musician who made his mark as a world class performer in both the brass band and operatic worlds.
August 15, 2021
The recent Aurora Orchestra Proms concert caught both the eyes and the ears of the audience at the Albert Hall - and its something the brass band movement could learn from.
August 4, 2021
Was the era of Mrs Thatcher, the Miners' Strike, 'loads of money' yuppies and football hooliganism also the last golden age of the brass band movement in the UK?
August 1, 2021
4BR Editor Iwan Fox picks five performances of Wilfred Heaton's masterpiece to add to your recording library.
July 27, 2021
Tim Mutum looks back on the life and career of a principal cornet who defined his own spotlight of excellence.
July 25, 2021
Sandy Smith argues that a re-evaluation of the importance of classical music arrangements could have a lasting benefit to a post Covid brass band movement.
July 8, 2021
Brass Bands England provide a robust defence of their work, responsibilities and ambitions as they reply to the questions posed by Brighouse & Rastrick Band.
July 6, 2021
Much to admire on the day at Halifax, but persistence, tenacity and sheer bloody-mindedness are not the characteristics banding needs in abundance if it is to make a lasting mark with the wider public on its post Covid return.
June 26, 2021
One of the greatest influences on the sound of the modern brass player and the modern brass band has just celebrated his 90th birthday.
June 21, 2021
4BR Editor Iwan Fox picks a quintet of iconic test-piece middle movements that bands as well as conductors with musical aspirations of greatness should understand and master.
June 9, 2021
Tim Mutum looks back on the life and career of one of the greatest cornet players of any era - and a man always full of comparisons.
June 8, 2021
4BR meets Mathilde Roh - the remarkable young Treize Etoiles cornet player who recently claimed the Swiss National Solo Championship title for the third year in a row.
June 5, 2021
The National Youth Band of Great Britain makes a three day return to live action after the challenges of Covid19.
May 22, 2021
As we approach our return to banding, are we about to reach a destination that offers future hope for prosperity or have we simply failed to grasp the opportunity for change.
April 29, 2021
4BR Editor Iwan Fox picks a quintet of memorable brass band recordings of the great Verdi overture La Forza Del Destino to add to your collection.
April 28, 2021
4BR Editor Iwan Fox argues that despite the success, brass bands must maintain the prestige of on-line contesting reality rather than relying on aural illusion to keep everyone entertained.
April 25, 2021
Tim Mutum looks back on the life and musical career of one of the most respected figures of the banding movement.
March 5, 2021
When brass bands return to live performance how do they prise the bums of an audience from the sofas in front of smart television screens to hear them play - or can they also offer another button to press...
February 16, 2021
Tim Mutum looks back at the remarkable life of the great cornet and trumpet player Willie Lang.
February 15, 2021
How do you find high quality sheet music? Score Exchange may be just the right place to find out...
February 12, 2021
4BR Editor Iwan Fox picks five of the best recordings of Eric Ball's classic test-piece to add to your collection.
February 10, 2021
The European Championships will return to Birmingham in 2022, but can it provide the right stimulus both EBBA and British contesting needs to proposer in the years to come?
January 18, 2021
Brass banding is starting to be portrayed in a more informed light in the national media - thanks to finally realising we can influence some control over the message to report on...
January 4, 2021
Tim Mutum looks back on the life of one of the truly unique musical talents of the banding movement.