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Adjudicators' Experience Day 2025
The Association of Brass Band Adjudicators (AoBBA) and Kapitol Promotions are pleased to announce the four participants who have been selected to take part in the jointly promoted Adjudicators’ Experience Day on Sunday 14th September at the Section 1-4 National Finals at Cheltenham.
Ben Brickles, Thomas Dunne, Stephanie Dyer & Daniel Hutchins will join mentor Nicholas Garman, taking part in a workshop covering score preparation, the PAC (Performance Assessment Criteria) code, contest paperwork and how an adjudicator prepares for a contest. Additionally to this, the participants will do their own adjudications for half of the Section 3 contest, meeting the official adjudicators and partaking in a de-brief Q&A session.
Ben Brickles, a graduate of the University of Huddersfield, is the Musical Director of Barnsley Brass whom he led to victory in the second section at the NEMBBA Contest earlier this year. Alongside this, he is an active cornet player with Yorkshire Imperial Band. Joining Ben will be Thomas Dunne; a graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama where he achieved his BMus & MMus in Music Performance, as well as more recently a PhD researcher at Cardiff University School of Social Science. Thomas is Musical Director of Lydney Town Band with whom he won the third section at Wychavon Contest in 2024.
Alongside both Ben and Thomas will be Stephanie Dyer – a music graduate of King’s College, Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music, and former principal trombonist of the National Children’s Orchestra, making her concerto debut aged 13 and going on to be a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Finally, Daniel Hutchins will complete the quartet; a composition student at the Royal College of Music and cornet player with GUS Band.
In addition to the Adjudicators’ Experience Day on Sunday 14th September, the previous day will see AoBBA Development Members Danny Brooks & Melissa Smith will take part in a shadow adjudication with mentor Martin Heartfield as part of the Development Programme in Section 1.
