Flowers bring Wonderland magic to Gateshead

Last Saturday, Flowers made the long trip to Gateshead for the 46th Brass in Concert Championships. This spectacular entertainment contest is held each November at the Glasshouse International Centre of Music (formerly known as The Sage).

We chose ‘Alice in Wonderland’ as our theme for this year, drawing inspiration from Lewis Carroll’s original novel as well as the cinematic adaptations by Disney and Tim Burton. This contest has become a showcase event for new music for brass bands, and we were delighted to present five world premieres composed by Dan Price, Lucy Pankhurst and Kelly-Marie Murphy.

Before we played our first note we transformed the stage into Wonderland, with an array of scenery and props made by members of the band. We also made full use of the fantastic audio-visual capabilities at the Glasshouse, with lighting effects and animated images on screen. All of these elements take time to prepare but really added to the immersive nature of our performance.

We opened our programme with ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’ by Dan Price. This evocative music set the scene and introduced us to the title character, Alice. She follows the White Rabbit and falls down a rabbit hole into a mysterious world.

Next up was ‘Curiouser and Curiouser’, a brand new solo for tenor horn by Lucy Pankhurst, performed by Emily Evans. This piece depicts Alice’s size-changing escapades as she encounters the ‘drink me’ bottle and irresistible ‘eat me’ cake. The piece is fiendishly difficult, stretching the range of the tenor horn, and with extremely virtuosic passages throughout. Emily gave a superb performance and was greeted by rapturous applause from the audience.

Time for Tea’, also by Lucy Pankhurst, took us on a whistle stop tour of all our favourite Wonderland characters. The euphoniums (Mad Hatter), baritones (March Hare), trombones (Caterpillar), cornets (White Rabbit), basses (Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee), horns (Alice) and flugel (Cheshire Cat) each took their turn to feature at the front of the stage at the tea party table.

‘Pavan for a Jam Tart’ by Dan Price whisks us away to the castle of the Red Queen. The main theme is periodically interrupted by fanfares, mimicking the erratic behaviour of the Queen of the Hearts, and her outcries of ‘off with their heads!’.

The last piece was ‘O Frabjous Day! Alice Slays’ by Kelly-Marie Murphy, which depicts the battle between Alice and the Jabberwocky. This is dramatic music showing off the technical skill and dynamic range of the band, and was a fitting finale to our programme.

We were delighted to be awarded 3rd place overall, equalling our best ever placings from Brass in Concert 2015, 2019 and 2021, and with our highest score to date. Music and Quality of Performance adjudicator Margie Antrobus awarded us first place, with a full 60 out of 60 points, and said: “Fantastic performance. The band sounds amazing, each group earns its place. Soloists are unbelievable. Well done!”

We also ranked highly on programme content (2nd overall) and entertainment (3rd and 4th respectively from each judge). Entertainment judge Jo Towler described our performance as “Effective storytelling, with dramatic music really matching the action. Slick show - nicely done!”

Emily Evans was the very deserving recipient of the ‘Best Soloist’ prize, only the second time ever that this has been awarded to a tenor horn player. I think it’s fair to say she was quite surprised when the results were called, but nobody else was! She gave a truly outstanding rendition of ‘Curiouser and Curiouser’, and we couldn’t be prouder to have her in our band.

Emily Evans with The Geoffrey Whitham Award for Best Soloist

Our third accolade of the evening was for best new arrangement or composition, awarded to Lucy Pankhurst for ‘Time for Tea’. This was selected from 47 new pieces performed on the day. Lucy is the first woman to have ever won the award in the 46 years of the competition, something which seems long overdue. We are extremely grateful to the RVW Foundation for their financial support in the commissioning of Lucy’s two pieces for our programme.

Brass in Concert was a fantastic end to our 2023 contest season. While the results may not have all gone our way this year, we’ve been thrilled to see so many Flowers fans supporting us and enjoying our performances at venues all across the UK.

If you couldn’t make to it Gateshead, fear not, as our performance is available to replay on Wobplay. While you’re there, you can also listen to our latest CD, ‘DA Vinci’, which features a new concerto for Emily Evans, and solos by Lauren Chinn and Paul Richards.

We’re already back at rehearsals preparing for our next CD recording in a week, and Christmas concerts. You can find all upcoming performances and links to buy tickets on our Engagements Page. If you’d like to join us at the Bacon Theatre on 21st December please be aware tickets are on track to sell out, so you’ll need to be quick to grab those last few seats!

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A Trip Down the Rabbit Hole!

Flowers bring Wonderland magic to Gateshead

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