Greeting to all Band Directors.
We at ncbf (National Concert Band Festival) are committed to providing performance opportunities for wind bands and big bands, even at this unique time of COVID-19 infections in the UK and worldwide.
We sincerely hope you are all keeping safe and well, no doubt waiting for the ‘green light’ to start meeting and rehearsing again. Good to read that the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and also the National Symphony Orchestra were both in studios recording last week and the Vienna Philharmonic are starting to perform concerts to a limited sized audience. There has already been some useful research that indicate playing wind instruments presents about the same amount of viral spread risk as talking and breathing normally (see West Point Music Research Center document on NCBF website), so there are some positive aspects for our band world.
- We have seven NCBF Regional Festivals planned for the Autumn (see NCBF website) leading to the NCBF Nationals on 10/11 April 2021 at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, and that is our number one option.
- Option 2: if the current circumstance still prevail, we may have to consider postponing those Regional Festivals until January/February, still leading to the NCBF Nationals in April 2021.
- Option 3: if rehearsals are still not practically possible in the Autumn/Winter, we could stage the NCBF Nationals in April 2021 inviting bands from the cancelled 2020 Nationals to perform.
We would welcome your comments on the above, so that NCBF can continue to provide those adjudicated performance opportunities – please get in touch either by email: keith.allen@ncbf.info or reply via the contact form on this page – we value your support.
- Keith Allen
Update 01/07/2020
Many, many thanks for your feedback comments to our recent circulation about options for next season and/or completed entry forms for the proposed Autumn Regional Festivals.
Your support of NCBF activities is very re-assuring, particularly in these unique circumstances of lockdown and its after-effects – unfortunately, there are still many unknowns for music making in both education and the community.
These are the options facing us:
· Option 1: Regional Festivals in the Autumn leading to NCBF Nationals @ RNCM on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 April 2021
· Option 2: Regionals Festivals in Winter (January/February) leading to NCBF Nationals as above
· Option 3: NCBF Nationals 2021 with invitations to bands from the cancelled 2020 Nationals to perform
Whilst it is still too early to confirm the exact schedule to be adopted for the 2020-2021 season at this stage, we intend to publish it in September, taking into account your thoughts and also pursuing any additional opportunities we can offer bands.
Maybe not taking us any further at the moment, however allowing us a ‘breather’ for you all to browse the ncbf resources for some hopefully useful information.
- Keith Allen
