Alan Hope has been involved in the brass band movement for many years as a player, a conductor, a teacher and an adjudicator. A former euphonium player, he took up playing the bass trombone whilst in the Royal Air Force.
The members of the panel listed below are responsible for selecting the test-pieces for the Regional and National Championships each year. The test-pieces for each Regional qualifying series are released on the eve of the September Lower Section National Finals, the year before the Regional Championships take place, and the five ‘Finals’ test-pieces are released by the middle of July in the year in which the ‘Finals’ take place.
All test-pieces selected and adjudicators appointed are revealed on this website first.
The Kapitol Music Panel enjoys complete independence in the selection of the test-pieces, and each member of the panel possesses a wide experience in playing with, conducting and adjudicating bands at every level in the five ‘National’ sections, as you can see from their biographies below.
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Alan Hope has been involved in the brass band movement for many years as a player, a conductor, a teacher and an adjudicator. A former euphonium player, he took up playing the bass trombone whilst in the Royal Air Force.
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He started conducting in the 1970s and, after success with several Lower Section bands, moved into the Championship Section where, for a period of 15 years, he conducted a number of bands with considerable success. He has also conducted several operatic and choral societies. A former teacher in Sunderland, Alan Hope has experienced brass banding at all levels through his involvement with the musical education of many hundreds of pupils. He is also a former conductor of the North Regional Youth Band.
In addition to conducting and teaching, he has always been involved in the administrative side of the British brass band movement. He is North of England Regional Secretary and Regional Co-ordinator, as well as Secretary of the Music Panel for Kapitol Promotions Ltd., which promotes the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain.
Alan Hope has adjudicated a raft of competitions throughout the UK including the National Finals on three occasions, ‘Regional’ contests, Butlins’ Mineworkers and the Scottish Open. He has also served as an Executive Member of the Association of Brass Band Adjudicators.
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Brian Buckley adjudicates regularly at major brass and wind band festivals throughout the United Kingdom. With diplomas in conducting, performing and teaching, Brian Buckley is a busy and experienced adjudicator, conductor and examiner. |
Since commencing his conducting career in 1968, he has focused his attention mainly on bands within Wales and the West Country, with a great deal of success. He has guided bands from the Lower Sections to the Championship Section in successive years, collecting ‘National’ honours along the way.
From his early teens, Brian Buckley established a sound reputation as a cornet and trumpet soloist of quality, and was principal cornet for one of Wales’ leading bands, Tredegar, for almost 25 years.
A prolific prizewinner at solo competitions and festivals, he won the Welsh Solo Champion title on five occasions, which featured a hat trick of victories in the early 1960s. From the mid-1950s to the late 1960s, he was also the principal cornet and leader of the National Brass Band of Wales for many of the band’s concert tours linked with the National Eisteddfod of Wales.
Much of Brian Buckley’s time is spent guiding and mentoring aspiring young musicians. He is Secretary of the Association of Brass Band Adjudicators and Chairman of the National Association of Brass Band Conductors (Welsh Area).
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John Maines began his playing career with the Wigan Boys Club, Prescott Cables and Cammell Laird bands. He spent some of his playing career in Cornwall with St. Austell and Bodmin bands, where he quickly made his mark with a succession of victories at solo competitions throughout the South-east. |
At that time, he became the Champion Trombone Player of Great Britain on three successive occasions, one of only two players to achieve a hat trick in this event.
John Maines went on to play solo trombone for Stanshawe, Bristol and Fairey Engineering bands, as well as principal trombone for Harry Mortimer’s Men o’ Brass. He become principal trombone for Black Dyke Band, with which he won many major titles, including a hat trick of ‘European’ Championships.
Since 1979, John Maines has been a tutor of trombone at the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain and is a Council member of the organisation. He is also a member of the Association of Brass Band Adjudicators, and regularly judges in Britain and abroad. He also directs the National Youth Brass Band of Denmark.
A BA Music (Hons.) graduate from the University of Sheffield, John Maines is in great demand as a conductor of many of Britain’s best brass bands, as well as a master of ceremonies at several prestigious banding occasions.
He presented the long-running BBC weekly radio programme, GMR Brass, for many years and, in 1995, received the Manchester Music Makers’ Award for his contribution to the broadcasting of music in the Greater Manchester area. He now presents the World of Brass on-line radio show.
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Richard Evans is one of the most colourful and flamboyant characters on the British brass band scene. Born in Aldershot, the regular son of a regular soldier, he spent the first two years of his life in India. On returning to England, his family moved to Preston, Lancashire, and it was in nearby Leyland, with the British Legion Band, that Richard Evans was introduced to the cornet. |
Within three years, he was one of the founder members of the National youth Brass Band of Great Britain, for which he became Principal Cornet under the baton of the late Harry Mortimer, OBE, CBE. He moved from the British Legion Band to Leyland Motors (the forerunner of the band known as Leyland today. There, Richard Evans studied under the band’s forefathers, Harold Moss and William Haydock.
National Service took Richard Evans to Berlin and, when he returned to civilian life, he joined Black Dyke Mills Band.
However, it was in the art of conducting that Richard was to carve a brilliant career. Graduating from the Royal Northern College of Music, he became a full-time teacher and also played freelance trumpet with the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra, the Manchester Mozart Orchestra, Syd Lawrence and many other famous ensembles. During this period, his conducting skills were being perfected in a vast theatre of experience including in brass bands, choral societies and the directions of operas.
He became conductor of Wingates Temperance Band in 1975 and went on to win the British Open Championship with the band three months later. The following year, he joined Fariey Engineering Band as its musical Director and, in 1978, was recruited to rebuild Leyland Vehicles Band with the specific remit of achieving Championship Section within three years, which he accomplished. He then worked with Foden’s and Yorkshire Building Society bands and, in 2004, accepted the position of resident Musical Director with Grimethorpe Colliery (UK Coal) Band. Today, he enjoys connections with the world-famous Brighouse and Rastrick Band as Associate Conductor, although most of his work is now freelance.
Richard Evans was recently appointed Visiting Professor of Brass to Senzoku Gakuen College of Music in Tokyo and his prowess as a conductor, teacher, adjudicator and movement leader was recognised in 1986, when he received the J. Henry Iles Medal from the Worshipful Company of Musicians. He has worked with bands all over the world and is Musical Director of the National Youth Brass Band of Scotland.