Classic FM - Do not ignore brass band music!

The nearest Classic FM gets is a military band or occasionally a brass ensemble but I have never heard a true British style brass band played.

This is a serious omission and I believe the station is missing a trick and potentially losing a large audience. Brass bands in Britain alone have thousands of players and hundreds of thousands of fans and are hardly catered for on ANY British station. After all, many of the brass soloists you play within an orchestral setting started their careers in brass bands.

Let we brass band players and audience members assure Classic FM that brass band music is classical and not just marches and hymn tunes.

Pretty much every major composer has arrangements of his/her work adapted and arranged for brass bands and hundreds of composers have produced works specifically for brass bands. Just a few of these brass band specific compositions come from; Eric Ball, Harrison Birtwistle, Malcolm Arnold, Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst, Elgar Howarth and John Ireland. There are many more.

Go-on Classic FM programmers, be a devil and play some brass band classical music - there is more than enough for a weekly specialist brass band show but better would be to programme it amongst the regular daily offerings. Maybe we can suggest that you start with Eric Ball - perhaps his 'Resurgam' or 'Festival Music' which I am sure will be enjoyed by your regular audience as well as brass band 'people'.

Please Classic FM - give us our fair share of programming - you may even introduce a whole new audience to the magnificent classical music that is the domain of the brass band.