Brass at the Proms

Brass band music has been a part of my life from a South Yorkshire childhood when Sunday wouldn't have been Sunday without the Salvation Army Band at the open air meeting. The local colliery band took pride of place at the head of all processions and performed regularly at the bandstand in the park. The Grimethorpe Colliery Band was just down the road from where I lived. In adult life when I was a parish priest in Bradford for 20 plus years Black Dyke Mills Band was always about not least in the cathedral leading the singing on big occasions.

BBC Proms Brass day: Saturday 28 July

The BBC Proms brings together hundreds of brass players for a day which promises to be one of the loudest and most memorable experiences of the season.

The day explores the stylistic range to be found in the world of brass instruments, from two of the finest brass bands in the world – the Black Dyke and Grimethorpe Colliery bands – to ancient Uzbek trumpets, from His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts to the Fanfare Trumpets of the band of the Coldstream Guards, and from star soloists such as Håkan Hardenberger and David Pyatt, to the youngest enthusiast who has just had his or her first trumpet lesson.

200 professional and amateur brass players join the BBC Philharmonic for two concerts celebrating brass in all its diversity

Two world premieres including a huge creative work by Peter Wiegold for massed forces including professionals and students, plus a specially composed fanfare by Judith Bingham

Open 'come and play' workshop for anyone who plays a brass instrument at whatever level

The day starts with an invitation for anyone who plays a brass instrument, from beginners to professionals, to attend a morning playing session called 'Brass Massive', which culminates in the first performance of a version of Judith Bingham's specially created fanfare, Ziggurat, on the steps of the Royal Albert Hall, announcing that Brass Day has begun.

In the matinee concert, the ancient traditions of Uzbekistani trumpeters contrast with two of the finest exponents of the British brass band tradition – the Black Dyke and Grimethorpe Colliery bands.

Brass has one of the longest of traditions in classical music, and the earlier end of the spectrum will be represented by His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts in music by Monteverdi (from his opera Orfeo, 400 years old in 2007) and Giovanni Gabrieli.

By contrast, the liveliness of modern-day brass writing is represented by the official world premiere of Judith Bingham's Ziggurat, plus Henze's Ragtimes and Habaneras, a rip-roaring band work originally premiered at the 1975 Proms.

Central to the day are the fruits of an ambitious ongoing collaboration between the BBC Proms and Manchester-based forces including the BBC Philharmonic, the Royal Northern College of Music, Salford University and London-based brass students.

At the heart of this collaboration is an ambitious new piece called He is armoured without created by Peter Wiegold. It brings together the students from Manchester and London as well as the Fanfare Trumpets of the Band of the Coldstream Guards, musicians from the ancient ceremonial tradition of Uzbekistan, and players from the BBC Philharmonic.

He is armoured without, written with the spaces of the Royal Albert Hall in mind, is part composed and part improvised in workshops and Learning sessions beforehand. Peter Wiegold himself conducts the giant forces.

Brass students from the Royal Northern College of Music play 'Side-by-Side' with the brass players of the BBC Philharmonic in a version of Musorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, arranged for symphonic brass forces by Elgar Howarth. This will be conducted by Håkan Hardenberger, making his Proms conducting debut.

In the evening concert, Sir Charles Mackerras conducts two works which highlight brass – Schumann's rarely heard Konzertstück for with four leading British horn players and Janáček's blazing Sinfonietta, in which RNCM students again join the BBC Philharmonic. Håkan Hardenberger plays one of the most successful Proms commissions in recent times, H K Gruber's Aerial.