A well deserved good day for Friary at the Spring Festival

Friary returned from the British Open Spring Festival Grand Shield contest last Sunday with heads held high.  In the new venue of Birmingham Town Hall, on a day which also featured the city’s half marathon, the Band was awarded a highly creditable 7th place out of the 20 competitors.  Coincidentally, Friary was band no. 7 in the programme, and drawn to play seventh.

The test piece was Stephen Roberts’ Star Crossed Lovers - by his own admission, a highly challenging work - based on Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet, Romeo & Juliet.  Adjudicators Stephen Roberts and Anne Crookston were clearly impressed with MD Captain Andrew Porter’s reading, summarising the performance respectively:

‘A fine performance, not without its flaws, but overall a well paced and musically nuanced reading.’

and

‘Although not 100% settled in balance and intonation in places, you painted a very convincing picture - especially the build to the finale.’

Band Chair David Wicks commented: ‘Although it would have been wonderful to have taken one of the top two places which would lift us into the British Open, realistically all we wanted was a result which reflected Andy’s meticulous preparation and the effort which everyone contributed to our performance.  Seventh place in a field of 20 quality bands was a very fair result which we feel we deserved, and we were the highest placed London & Southern Counties band too!’

Eventually winners were Milnrow, with Hepworth runners up, both of which will compete in the British Open at Symphony Hall, Birmingham in September:  congratulations to them.  For the full results, please visit 4barsrest.com.

Huge congratulations too to our friends at Sandhurst Silver who won the Spring Festival’s Senior Trophy contest on Saturday, all the more impressive as it was on their debut!  They will compete in the Senior Cup at next year’s Spring Festival. Also, East London Brass who, after their fourth place result in the Senior Cup, join Friary in the Grand Shield next year.