The 4th Flemish Brass Band Championships takes place this weekend in Mechelen, where 17 bands compete in four sections.

Cross border

There is a strong line up of bands listed to compete in the A Section on the Saturday evening, with Belgian heavyweights Brass Band Buizingen and Brass Band Willebroek up against the Netherlands duo of Brass Band Schoonhoven and Brass Band Rijnmond, as well as 3BA Concert Brass from Germany.

Norwegians

Section B on Saturday afternoon will see the Belgian contender Brass Band Bacchus competing against the Dutch duo of Delta Brass Zeeland and David from Zwolle, as well as the Norwegians of Tomra Brass.

Section C comprises the Belgian trio of Brass Band Panta Rhei, Mons St Georges Brass Band and Young Brassband Willebroek, who will compete for the title against Brass Band Schoonhoven B from the Netherlands.

UK traveller

Eight bands will compete in the D Section, where Brass Band Vlimmeren, Brass Band Retie, Brass Band Lembeek, Bravoer and Leest will lock horns with Brass Band Düren from Germany and the sole UK representative, Torbay Brass.

Each band will be required to perform a programme lasting no longer than 30 minutes in duration, comprising at least a short set piece and a test piece of own choice.

Set works

The set pieces this year are ‘Flashlight’ by Jan Van der Roost (Section A), ‘Prelude to a Hero’ by Joop van Dijk (Section B), ‘Prelude and Choral’ by Stijn Roels (Section C) and ‘Fanfare for a Festival’ by Peter Meechan (Section D).

New music to be performed will include ‘A Fanfare of Bells’ by Hermann Pallhuber as well as Nigel Clarke’s new work 'When Worlds Collide', which has been inspired by the brilliant science fiction B movies of the 1950’s4BR

Own choice selection

Some of the own choice selections to be played include, ‘Blitz’ (Derek Bourgeois), ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ (Peter Graham), ‘Audivi Media Nocte’ (Oliver Waespi), ‘The Saga of Haakon the Good’ (Philip Sparke), ‘Tallis Variations’ (Philip Sparke), ‘Partita’ (Philip Wilby), ‘Penlee’ (Simon Dobson), ‘Renaissance’ (Peter Graham) and ‘Dimensions’ (Peter Graham).

New music

New music to be performed will include ‘A Fanfare of Bells’ by Hermann Pallhuber as well as Nigel Clarke’s new work 'When Worlds Collide', which has been inspired by the brilliant science fiction B movies of the 1950’s such as `The Day the Earth Stood Still’ and `Invasion of the Body Snatchers’.

Further information:

The adjudicators for the contest have been announced as Jan Van der Roost, Blaise Héritier and Ian Porthouse.

Tickets to the contest are available from: www.vobk.org/¬tickets

The event starts at 2.30pm on the Saturday and at 9.00am on the Sunday.