Canterbury Provincial Brass Band Contest - 23th / 24th September

Sumner was pleased to compete in the CPBBA annual contest on 23rd and 24th September 2023, coming third overall in its category.

The band was placed second in the entertainment category, where our performance included Hey Jude, which featured our talented flugel and tenor horn section, and Singin in the Rain, for which we were joined by 10 year old Evie Spain who sang the first verse of the song and performed a tap dance during the piece.

Our sacred item was the hymn tune Gresford, known as The Miners’ Hymn, which was written following a mining disaster at Gresford Colliery near Wrexham in Wales in September1934 where 266 miners lost their lives, the vast majority of whom are still underground. Our performance of this tune was placed third.

The band’s major work was Indian Summer by the prolific brass band composer Eric Ball. The piece invokes images of the native tribes of North America, and is in four movements - The Great Chief Speaks, By the Cool Waters, Totem Dance and Hymn to the Great Spirit. Sumner was placed third in this section of the contest.

Our stage march was the classic Imperial Echoes, which the band enjoys playing very much and is now firmly a part of our repertoire for the coming months.

On the second day of the contest Sumner also had members of the band performing the solo and ensemble sections of the competition.

One of our solo cornet section, James Upton, came second in the solo Variation category, and entries from two ensembles from the band were awarded second and third places respectively.