Uni brass band success at the Unibrass Championship

The University Brass Band entered a band consisting entirely of current music students for the 2020 University Brass Band Championships of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

MUSIC students at the University of Huddersfield have made sure it stays ranked among the top brass.  And they stole a march on their rivals with a stirring performance that had a touch of the Monty Pythons!

The 2020 UniBrass contest – which brings together student brass bands from all over the UK – was held at Bangor University.  After performing a varied 20-minute programme under the baton of director Jonathan Beatty, the University of Huddersfield’s band was placed third among the ten contestants in the upper division.

It was pipped at the post by Salford University and the specialist Royal Northern College of Music, with Huddersfield ahead of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

In addition, the prize for best soloist went to third-year University of Huddersfield student Siobhan Bates.  Acknowledged as one of the country’s leading players of the tenor horn and a member of the famous Black Dyke Band, she impressed judges with a performance of the ballad Autumn Leaves.

The Huddersfield band was also awarded the prize for best performance of a march.  It had chosen Sousa’s Liberty Bell, best known as the theme tune to Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and topical because of the recent death of Python star Terry Jones.

The UniBrass contest – at which the University of Huddersfield band is a past winner and a consistently strong performer – places an emphasis on entertainment value.  The Huddersfield set list concluded with the Strauss waltz Perpetuum Mobile, which segued into an arrangement of Climb Every Mountain, from The Sound of Music, with cornet player Chris Warrington displaying his singing skills.

Taking part in UniBrass is a highlight of students’ time at Huddersfield, said conductor Jonathan Beatty, and he is proud that his university band consists entirely of current music students.  Also, instead of cherry picking the very best players, he accepts all who are keen to join in, with the result that the University of Huddersfield Brass Band expands to a 40-strong unit.