Adjudicators' Experience Day: September 2024

The Association of Brass Band Adjudicators (AoBBA) and Kapitol Promotions held its inaugral Adjudicators’ Experience Day at the Section 1-4 National Finals in Cheltenham on Saturday 14th September.

The four participants (Melissa Brown, Joe Galuszka, Jen McCausland & Andy Wareham) were joined by mentor Martin Heartfield, taking part in a workshop covering score presentation, the PAC (Performance Assessment Criteria) code, contest paperwork and how an adjudicator prepares for a contest. Additionally to this, the participants did their own adjudications for the first half of the Section 1 contest, and had a good opportunity to meet with the official adjudicators: Roger Argente, Dr. Robert Childs & Alan Morrison, with Dr. Robert Childs sharing his own insights into the piece and his preparation for the contest.

At the conclusion of the day, participant Melissa Brown said that the day was “really informational and great to chat through our ideas with everybody else”, with Joe Galuszka adding “It’s been a real experience for us because the four of us haven’t had this kind of experience being able to write what we think about bands’ performances, so it’s certainly been an eye-opener into how adjudication works.”