01 May 2019 - Pioneering tour to Poland

On 24th May Lydbrook Band will set off on a pioneering 5-day tour to the city of Katowice in Poland.  The seeds for the visit were sown at the 2018 European Championships in Utrecht when Robert Morgan, Lydbrook Band’s Secretary, was introduced to Adam Kowalski who explained that the city was planning to start some brass bands in and around the city.

Following a few email exchanges an invitation was received from Katowice and the City of Gardens Institute of Culture.

During the tour Lydbrook Band will give four concerts together with masterclasses by players, their conductor Tom Brevik and composer-in-residence Liz Lane.  The main festival concert will take place on Sunday 26th May when the band will perform a varied programme as part of the Move Your Brass Festival weekend.

The band will be conducted on tour by the much respected Norwegian conductor, adjudicator and composer, Tom Brevik, who will be standing in for Lydbrook’s principal conductor, Ian Holmes who has recently been unwell.  Tom is an old friend of the band and has conducted them on many occasions including regional contests in 2008 and 2010.

Other well-known European visitors will be Jacob Dijkstra from The Netherlands and Remigijus Vilys from Lithuania.

Jacob was invited to Katowice following on from his work in Lithuania and to help with initial developments, to include:

•    Building networks
•    Bringing bands and specialists to the area
•    Start a brass band in the music academy
•    Start a female brass band
•    Invite Polish conductors to visit brass band countries
•    To start a festival with different types of bands called Move Your Brass

Remigijus Vilys was the founder of the brass band movement in Lithuania and its success could be seen at this year’s European Championships in Montreux where two bands from Lithuania took part.

It was in 2006 that Lydbrook Band visited Lithuania on a similar mission and it’s hoped that this visit to Poland will be equally successful.

This will be Lydbrook Band’s sixth overseas tour during the past 20 years, having previously visited South Africa, Zimbabwe, Holland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Barcelona and Los Alcazares.

Lydbrook Band will be the first brass band to visit the Katowice area and will endeavour to be proud ambassadors of the UK brass band movement.

For further information contact:
Robert Morgan
Secretary, Lydbrook Band
robertmorgan4@hotmail.co.uk
Tel:  01594 860944/07796 442463