Soon after their appearance at the British Open Spring Festival in Blackpool this weekend, the Lydbrook Band will set off on a pioneering 5-day tour to the Polish city of Katowice.

The seeds were sown at the 2018 European Championships in Utrecht when Band Secretary Robert Morgan was introduced to Adam Kowalski who explained that the city was planning to start some brass bands. Following an exchange of correspondence an invitation was received from Katowice and the City of Gardens Institute of Culture.

Four concerts

During the tour the band will give four concerts together with masterclasses by players, conductor Tom Brevik and composer-in-residence, Liz Lane. The main festival concert will take place on Sunday 26th May where Lydbrook will perform as part of the 'Move Your Brass' festival weekend.

The band will be led by the popular Norwegian conductor who has a long association with them, whilst they will also be joined by Jacob Dijkstra from The Netherlands and Remigijus Vilys from Lithuania, who have been instrumental in developing the brass banding movement in that country in the past decade.

It's hoped that this tour will also help with the development of a fledgling brass banding movement on much the same successful grounds, and where the European Championships will be held in 2010 in Palanga4BR

Develop

It's hoped that this tour will also help with the development of a fledgling brass banding movement on much the same successful grounds, and where the European Championships will be held in 2010 in Palanga.

This will be Lydbrook Band's sixth overseas tour during the past 20 years, having previously visited South Africa, Zimbabwe, Holland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Barcelona and Los Alcazares.

A spokesperson added: "Lydbrook will be the first brass band to visit the Katowice area and will endeavour to be proud ambassadors of the UK brass band movement."