The management of Brass Band Willebroek decided to let go the participation of Young Brass Band Willebroek at the EYBBC 2018 in Utrecht. It has been a great experience for the youth band with 3 titles.
Because of the age limitation is set on 22 years old, it got very hard to gather a full band to participate for the 4th time. YBBW and BBW are one financial organization and since Brass Band Willebroek will take part at the EBBC, is was not possible to finance both bands. Belgium is a small country and to maintain the high standard of musicianship of (young) Willebroek, it is hard to find the right players. To be able to participate we would have to find another 4 basses, 1 tenor horn, 1 soprano player and 2 percussionist under the age of 22. This would be the case if MD Lode Violet would again take the role as principal cornet and let Frans Violet conduct the band. The change of conductor most certainly has nothing to do with the absence of YBBW.
For all this reasons it was clear that YBBW unfortunately is not able to participate again next year. Of course: who knows what the future will bring! But for now YBBW enjoys being national champion in their division and looks forward to compete at the Flemish open in April with their MD Lode Violet. Young Brass Band Willebroek wishes all participating bands good luck and a really enjoyable stay at Utrecht with a lot of great music and atmosphere. The EYBBC is a great initiative to stimulate the youth that most certainly must continue to expand in the future.
Understanding EBBA
The European Brass Band Association (EBBA) fully understands and respects our decision: “We think it is quite clear that these reasons are sufficient not to come to the EYBBC next year. The past few years we really enjoyed your playing and are honoured that we had such a band participating at the EYBBC. We are looking forward to see Brass Band Willebroek again at the EBBC and wish both bands and conductors good luck with all their plans for the future.”