Works by Edward Gregson, Joop van Dijk, Thierry Deleruyelle and Jan de Haan will test the bands at the 2022 Belgian National Championships later this year.

The event returns after an enforced two-year break due to Covid-19. There was no event in 2020 or 2021 resulting in the VLAMO host organisers not nominating a representative band to take part in the 2022 European Championships held in Birmingham this year. The defending champion is Brass Band Willebroek.

The winning band at this year's event will be nominated to represent Belgium at the 2023 European Championships in Malmo, Sweden.

The World Rejoicing

Edward Gregson's 'The World Rejoicing (Symphonic Variations on a Lutheran Chorale)' which was originally commissioned in partnership with the British Open and other leading European National Championships will finally be heard in the Championship Section event at Heist-op-den-Berg on the weekend of the 26th/27th November.

Joop van Dijl's colourful 'From San Marco Quarter', which was commissioned for the 2021 Dutch National Championships will be used in the First Division.

It takes its inspiration from the works of composers of the Baroque and Renaissance period that would have been performed in churches, palaces and theatres in the San Marco quarter of Venice.

New work

A new work entitled 'Compostella' by French composer Thierry Deleruyelle will face the Second Division contenders, whilst Third Division bands will perform 'The Baltic Way', which was commissioned for the 2020 European Youth Championships that was to have taken place in Palanga.

The work is inspired by a huge mass demonstration staged in the Baltic States as a call for independence from the Soviet Union on August 23rd 1989.