French Open

The band returned from the Loire Valley late on Sunday night with three trophies, a lot of photos/videos and many tales.

We performed four times over our two days in Amboise. Our short opening concert was in the beautiful setting of the castle. We chose music from recent entertainments contests and concerts and were very well received. Somehow we managed to retrieve all the music that the gusts of wind re-distributed around the band.

The next morning we were live-streamed from the contest hall. The format involved playing two pieces before the set test-piece. This included a characteristically impressive solo from our principal cornet, Katie. The set test-piece was the one we had performed at the Areas contest earlier this year and we came second to Witton Albion, another band from our Area.

In the afternoon we took to the streets of Amboise. The crowd loved our version of Country Roads and the adjudicators awarded us 3rd place for our contest march, Knight Templar.

We saved the best for last, performing a set of Freddie Mercury music in the entertainments section. With 30mph gusts of wind our main challenge was holding down stands and turning pages without losing them. Jess, our solo horn, conquered the conditions with a stunning performance of ‘Love of my Life’ and we completed our set with a medley of Queen music arranged by our talented soprano player, Mero. We won the popular vote as the most entertaining performance – a great way to round off our trip.

Many thanks to the players from other bands who volunteered to cover for those of our players who couldn’t make the trip. We hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as we did and won’t be deleting our contact details.