Historic victory for University Brass Band at UniBrass 2025

‘UniBrass’ is the annual university brass band contest for Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Each year over twenty university bands compete between two highly competitive sections, with additional prizes given for individuals and special features. This year the competition was at Cardiff University, with performances happening throughout the day across a number of venues in the city.

This year marked the debut UniBrass contest for newly-appointed musical director Stephen Kane, who created a programme themed entitled ‘A Space Odyssey’. The twenty-minute programme started out with an exciting percussion-based ‘rocket launch’ in sync with accompanying visual display which led into Strauss’ famous Also Sprach Zarathustra. Next up was T.J. Powell’s march The Spacemen which went on to win the prize for Best March in the Trophy Section. First year Material Science and Engineering student Michael Lord delighted the audience with his rendition of the flugelhorn solo A Little Star Went Out, and the set finished with an excerpt from Paul Lovatt-Cooper’s test piece Dark Side of the Moon.

Both adjudicators congratulated the 55-strong band on their “impressive sound” and thanked them for putting on “a great show”.

This is the first year in the history of the UniBrass contest that the University of Birmingham has come away with the top prize and - with the band having spent the previous year in the section below - this is a fantastic achievement for the band and a testament to the hard work of the conductor and players alike.

University Brass Band is a large brass ensemble which gives two concerts per year. The ensemble is an un-auditioned group - with no cap on membership - and welcomes players studying all disciplines at the University.

If you would like to hear the band in action, they will be performing alongside the University Chamber Choirs in the Elgar Concert Hall on Friday 21 March 2025 at 19:30.