Tubas, euphoniums, mouthpieces, and anything music-related.
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Future NABBA dates have been announced. The 2021 contest will be in Ft. Wayne, Indiana in a highly modified form because of the pandemic. In 2022-2024, it will move to the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama. https://nabba.org/future-nabba-dates/
The 2021 contest will have the usual divisions, but not set test pieces. Programs will be open choice. Timing rules will be announced later, and the revision of the rule book is still in progress. The contest, because of uncertain participation as of yet, will be on a single day. Most of the relevant information is here: https://nabba.org/championships/ In addition to the first three places in each division, some caption awards are being introduced this year. All the changes make for an interesting read.
After this year's cancellation, it's good to see that an effort is being made next year. Hopefully things will be back to normal in 2022.
Last edited by GC on Wed Jan 13, 2021 3:38 am, edited 2 times in total.
There is a new edition of NABBA's publication The Brass Band Bridge out, the first one in quite a while. It has a bit more information about contest and venue changes, plus a lot of personnel info.
The NABBA website, nabba.org, has posted that the 2021 contest is now canceled. From the Championships page:
The NABBA Board of Directors has made the tough decision to cancel the 2021 Championships in April. It was our hope that the pandemic would not last as long as it has, though recent trends make it clear that having the event in April will not be possible. It was our wish that bands have something to look forward to as they maneuvered through these tough times, and we hope that bands are able to stay safe and get back to banding as soon as possible. We will be looking forward to putting together the 2022 Championships in Huntsville, and hope to see everyone there.
North American Brass Band Association — British Brass Banding for Yankees and Canuks. Funs stuff. The instrumentation is a bit more flexible since we have more trouble finding tenor horns and baritones and Eb cornets and such, so they let us use instruments that probably would not be allowed in the UK. Otherwise, the musicianship is frequently quite good.
NABBA is the North American Brass Band Association, a US and Canadian group of British-style brass bands. Normally there's a 2-day competition for bands in various classes held at a public venue, but the 2020 event was canceled, and now the 2021 event is not going to be held, either. It's unfortunate that you've lost the opportunity to see them this year nearby. There is the possibility that it may return to Fort Wayne after 2024, since NABBA has done so well there, but only time will tell. Huntsville, Alabama will be the home of the contest for three years.
https://nabba.org/what-is-a-brass-band/ explains more about brass banding. Normally on nabba.org, the Championships heading explained how the championships were held and gave a detailed set of rules, but the current page is all about the cancellation. Since the pandemic will hopefully be over by April of 2022, a new rulebook and explanations of the format of the contest should be put back up in the next few months.
If you want more explanations of the way contests are organized and the basic rules, I'll be glad to put them up here.
