Success for Connaught Brass in international competition
The London-based Connaught Brass quintet won the inaugural Philip Jones International Brass Ensemble Competition at the RNCM in Manchester on the 20th July.
Formed in 2016 and comprising five final year students from the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, they claimed the £10,000 Philip Jones Prize, after a three-hour showcase of performances by a trio of outstanding finalists.
RET Chamber Brass from Austria eventually came runner-up to secure the £7,500 Marah Mahlowe Prize, with London Metropolitan Brass taking the £5,000 Founder’s Prize.
Trumpeter Harry Plant said that winning such prestigious award had been “an incredible feeling”.
‘We originally formed the ensemble in 2016, but the current line-up has been together now for just over a year and a half. We are all about to enter our final year of study at either the Royal Academy or Guildhall and we entered the competition because we wanted to challenge ourselves on demanding repertoire against the best in the world.
We thoroughly enjoyed this experience and had one mind set throughout: to make music in every performance — which is harder to do under the pressure of competition.’
Connaught Brass will now enjoy a busy summer with a performance spot at the Ferrandou Music Festival in France to look forward to, whilst the individual members are booked to play at the BBC Proms, various session work and a number of music courses across Europe.