Going into my final year at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, I decided I wanted my Major Project to be incredibly authentic to me. I wanted to create something that made a difference, no matter the ambition, that I could give all my time and attention to, purely because of my passion regarding it. It was obvious to me that this had to revolve around brass bands. My ultimate aim was to give great opportunities to bands at all levels. Immediately, I thought about offering the chance to comfortably perform in front of an excited crowd, with new listeners and listeners of varying experience. The competitive aspect of banding has always interested me; the accelerated progress that bands can make through contest periods, due to the intense determination and commitment, is something we should be immensely proud of as a community. On top of this, the idea of prizes and titles to boast about can only impact the community positively - with bands using their achievements as an attraction for new players. After thinking through this, it was clear that I had my heart set on my own contest.

I grew up in Crofton, a small village in Wakefield, where I began playing the Cornet at age 7, under my parents influence. It quickly became apparent how important banding had been within my family, with both sides deeply involved in the community. My parents grew close through playing for the Crofton Silver Band (named the Nostell Colliery Band at the time), with both of their fathers, and other family members, also playing. The Mick Foley Memoriam Award is in remembrance of my mum’s father, my Grandad. My Mum and Dad would frequently tell me stories of band competitions seemingly being every weekend, with the attendance rates at these contests causing them to feel almost never ending. This is a stark contrast to current day, with lower level bands, for the most part, now competing roughly once a year, at their regional contest. I love the spirit and community of brass banding, and hearing these stories from loved ones really inspires me to try be progressive within this niche world. That’s why when the opportunity of a Major Project based solely around my passions presented itself, I jumped at it. Taking this event on as my Major Project for my fourth year at the Conservatoire felt like the correct step forward, in the brass band world and my professional career.

The idea of contesting is really what we do best; bands working at their hardest, all together, to be rewarded justly and celebrate accordingly, catching up with friends and making new ones. We have so much of a ‘doomsday’ feel in our community - with governments seemingly neglecting the arts being, player shortages getting worse and contests perhaps not being delivered to the standard we want. It’s easy to see why we have this ‘doomsday’ feel, but we need to be able to be proud of what we do and not put ourselves down. If we can’t speak optimistically about the future of our music, we need to at least be able to speak positively about what we do, to encourage new audiences and players. We need to be able to confidently show off what we do, and why we do it, because otherwise we turn people away.

ConsTest 2023 was a great success with thanks to all those that made it possible. The design of the contest itself gave us a great mix of all sections and pieces, with each performance being consistent in quality. Generally, the lower the section of a band, the more likely they are to need to borrow players, but when bands can only borrow from their section or below, the lower section bands have less options to choose from. Allowing bands to borrow from any band/any section, with only 20 players needing to be registered, gave all bands a fighting chance of having a full roster for the contest. It also allowed some bands to give younger players experience. We need to be realistic about player requirements moving forward, to encourage more bands to perform and to address our player shortages appropriately. This was a real takeaway from this years event.   

I’m now immensely grateful to be taking ConsTest into it’s 3rd year, and constantly looking for ways we can elevate the whole project to leave a positive mark on the brass band movement.

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Mikey Foley-Hall

Contest Director