Belgium National Championships

[Roger Thorne]

Brass Band Willebroek conducted by Frans Violet have just been crowned Belgium National Champions 2002 for the second year running.

The band won both the set work and own choice sections.

Set Work - A Kensington Concerto - 285 pts
Own Choice - Year of the Dragon - 285 pts.

Total score 570 out of 600 points.

They will represent Belgium at the forthcoming European Championships in Bergen.

Adjudicators: Jappie Dijkstra, Phillip McCann and Philip Sparke.

 

[Wonky_Baton]

Roger what is the standard of Belgium Bands to here? All I can remember from Belgium is the dodgy bands that used to play on Its a Knockout. I still say to our cornets you sound like Belgium trumpets when they play badly

 

[Keppler]

Willebroek are a top band by anyone's standards..
If I remember correctly, they came in 2nd to a fantastic YBS performance at 2002 Europeans.

Banding in Belgium (and the Netherlands) is at a high standard indeed

 

[Wonky_Baton]

They need to be to play "Year of the Dragon". The Its a knockout crowd must have being a one off bunch of drunks!! :lol:

 

[Roger Thorne]

Wonky,

Posting the results of the Belgium National Finals may have given the impression that I was there. In fact I was just relaying the results from another source. Mind you, I would have loved to have been present.

Having listened to many CDs of European bands, it is certainly evident that they have become equally as good as our own top bands. Although their performances just seem to lack that 1% of polish compared to ours.

In recent years they have been very keen to employ British Conductors (Elgar Howarth, Howard Snell, Ray Farr and Garry Cutt to name just a few) and I think that has speeded up the process of improvement, particularly in adopting the same 'British Sound' as our own bands.

I agree with Keppler, the banding scene in Europe is very healthly and the standard is excellent.