Brass band Willebroek exists 40 years and will celebrate this with a big anniversary concert, A Concert of Legends. In addition to the current bands, an All-Star Band with former members will also perform in the San Marco Village in Schelle. One of the stars from the history of BBW will also be a guest again.
After 28 years of service, Stef Pillaert decided in 2013 to put an end to a phenomenal career. He won 17 Belgian titles, 3 European titles and of course several other (solo) prizes. His exceptional musical talent inspired many young euphonium players in Belgium. In addition to being a musician, Stef was also the main force on the board of Brassband Willebroek. At the concerts he not only mastered the euphonium, he was a fantastic presenter too.
An icon that cannot be missed at the anniversary concert. What's more, Stef Pillaert will again guide the audience through the concert as usual. We let him speak for himself:
Long, long ago I started presenting the concerts of BBW. To be fair, it was out of convenience. After all, for the BBW concerts, the organizers asked me for information about the pieces for the “local” presenter. Writing those texts always cost me way too much time – time that I would rather spend studying on my euphonium. Moreover, there is not much info to tell about all brass band works. In the long run, it suited me better to talk the concerts together myself. And if there was not enough to tell about a concert work, I would tell people some kind of story about BBW itself. Often there was some "thumb sucking" involved - for which my sincere apologies...
I've never felt like a real "presenter". I was therefore ashamed every time I heard people like Fred Brouwers or Annemarie Coebergh at work: that's how you should do it! But gradually I started to enjoy it more, with the approach: "Look, I can't really present at all, I'm just someone from the band, who will try to drag you into the wonderful world of BBW tonight."
I still doubt whether, after 7 years of “calm”, it is a good idea to literally and figuratively dust off my euphonium. But do I want to present the reunion concert? You can count on it!
Only now there is a huge difference: I don't have to drag anyone into that wonderful BBW world: we are (or were) all part of it! It will probably often be: “Do you remember the time we …”. But hey, once every 40 years, that's okay, right?