Flowers Spring Round Up

While it may be a quiet time of year for competitions as we enter the summer months, the band has not slowed down at all! We’ve been hard at work in the rehearsal room, on the concert stage, and in the recording studio.

Stroud Subscription Rooms

In mid April we returned to Stroud Sub Rooms, a venue just down the road from our home in Gloucester. We performed a wide selection of music, including compositions from film, classical and baroque genres, and also reprised some of our favourite pieces from previous Brass in Concert entertainment contests. Our soloists Emily Evans, Lauren Chinn and Paul Richards were in fine form, as ever.

We’ll be back in Stroud again on 18th February 2024 - mark your diaries!

Stroud Subscription Rooms - 23rd April, 2023

Coming soon - New Album

We were delighted to team up with World of Brass to record a new album of music that will be released later this year on their Wobplay platform. Over two days we recorded eleven tracks, all compositions written by friends of the band, including Paul McGhee Christian Overhead, Richard Taylor and a major work by Ludovic Neurohr to name but a few.

Our featured soloists include Paul Richards (soprano cornet), Lauren Chinn (flugel), guest principal cornet Iain Culross, and we are so excited for you to hear a brand new tenor horn concerto written by Mike Sheppard for Emily Evans.

Thank you to World of Brass for a super weekend in the recording studio, and particular thanks to our producer Mel. We can’t wait to hear the results and share them with you all. We shall let you know once we have a confirmed release date (expected to be autumn 2023).

World of Brass CD - 29th/30th April, 2023

Badminton Horse Trials

On the Coronation bank holiday the band braved the wet weather to perform in the main arena at Badminton Horse Trials. We played at key moments during the competition, including the winner’s anthem, prize giving and the lap of honour. It was a great privilege to be invited to perform at this world-renowned event in the equestrian calendar, and you can hear a few minutes of our performance right at the end of the BBC’s coverage (starts at 1hr 55 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001ltlt).

Thank you to the audience who were so appreciative of our performance. We’ve been sent a few recordings that you took from the stands, which we loved! If you have any other photos or videos of the event we’d be delighted if you would share them with us.

Flowers on the International Stage

We were extremely proud to see three of our members involved in the King’s Coronation, marching in the Coronation Parade with their regiments. Congratulations LCpl Jamie Nuss (percussion), LCpl Kelvin Retallack (cornet) and Cpl Ieuan Walton (bass) for your involvement in this historic event.

Coronation of King Charles III - 6th May, 2023

Congratulations to our principal cornet player, Luke Baker, who celebrated victory at the European Championships, playing with the Swiss champions, Brass Band Treize Etoiles. As many of you will know, Luke has been undertaking a year of study in the city of Fribourg in Switzerland, and upon moving there, he joined the front row of Treize Etoiles, and since then has become both a Swiss Champion and European Champion. Luke is returning to the UK soon and performing a solo at our concert in Nailsworth on 11th June - you won’t want to miss it!

Congratulations also go to our MD Paul Holland who led Whitburn Band to a respectable 10th place in an extremely competitive field.

Upcoming Vacancies

Due to player relocations we will have two vacancies in the band, for a 2nd Baritone and Eb bass. For more information or to make an application please email manager@flowers.band. Applications will close on Friday 19th of May at 6pm.

Upcoming Events

Our next concert is at 3pm on 11th of June in St George’s Church, Nailsworth. We will present a varied programme of music from film music, to Vaughan Williams, a brass band march, some music to mark the coronation, and more. Solo performances will be given by Luke Barker, Lauren Chinn and Matt Rowe. To get tickets, go to our engagements page.

You can now purchase tickets for our two concerts in the 2023 Three Choirs Festival. We are one of the featured ensembles for this year’s event, alongside The Philharmonia Orchestra, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The BBC National Orchestra of Wales, British Youth Opera and the Ora Singers.

https://3choirs.org/events/magic-and-mischief

https://3choirs.org/events/flowers-band-fanfares-and-love-songs

The Royal Albert Hall have released tickets for the Championship Section National Finals on 21st October.

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/events/2023/national-brass-band-championships/

Flowers Spring Round Up