BRASS is back for 2018 – and it’s coming the Barnard Castle.
The county-wide music festival takes place from Friday, July 13, to Sunday, July 22, and this year sees a special focus on female performers, starting with Women and Brass on the opening night.
Led by 74-year-old drummer Crissy Lee – a member of the pioneering all-girl Ivy Benson Band popular during the Second World War – the concert will feature a big band of leading female jazz musicians including Swedish internet sensation Gunhild Carling.
For Teesdale music lovers, The Fine Arts Brass Ensemble, will perform at The Bowes Museum on Tuesday, July 17.
Appropriately, the five-piece will play Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.
And to coincide with the museum’s summer exhibition The BFG in Pictures, featuring original Quentin Blake illustrations, brass festival organisers have commissioned a new piece inspired by the Roald Dahl children’s classic tale.
Elsewhere, the 12th annual festival boasts an international flavour, with Australian trumpeter James Morrison, New Orleans’ all-female jazz band Shake ‘Em Up and street bands from France, Serbia and Spain among the performers.
The ever popular streets of brass will return to Durham City, while parks across the county will host the popular Big Brass Bash concerts.
Other highlights include West End star Liza Pulman performing with the Brighouse and Rastrick Band, the UK’s number one championship band, in a unique collaboration celebrating the songs of Barbara Streisand.
Once again the festival will see bands head out into schools across the county, with special performances for more than 15,000 children and pupils given the chance to have a go at playing brass instruments for themselves.
The festival will conclude with a large free concert in Wharton Park.
Festival artistic director Paul Gudgin said: “The 2018 festival provides us a great opportunity to celebrate the increasing prominence of female musicians in all forms of brass music.
“It is a real privilege for us to showcase many of the leading female musicians from the classical, jazz and the brass band world and we are confident BRASS 2018 will be another fantastic event.”
Cllr Ossie Johnson, cabinet member for tourism, culture, leisure and rural issues at Durham County Council, which commissions the festival, said: “Brass is a fantastic event for the county, attracting tens of thousands of music fans to the area and bringing hundreds of thousands of pounds into the local economy.
“It has a well-deserved reputation and I’m looking forward to seeing this year’s festival once again raise the bar and build on the success of previous years, bringing together an absolutely cracking line-up of big names and local talent and showcasing the very best music from around the world.”
For more information and to book tickets go to www. brassfestival.co.uk
