Five UK bands are collaborating on an innovative project which will commission serious new music from established composers in other genres who have not yet composed for brass band. The initiative is being spearheaded by The cooperation Band, Cory, Flowers, Tredegar and Foden's alongside conductor Martyn Brabbins. The aim is to identify suitable composers, invite them to compose for the genre, and then commit to five 'premiere' performances across the UK, one from each band.
 
Richard Blackford is the first commissioned composer, with the piece being supported and co-commissioned by BBC Radio 3. Blackford ranks among Europe’s leading composers for both concert and media music. His works are performed internationally and his scores for film and television are broadcast widely across nearly every European nation. His acclaimed choral composition Pietà earned the Ivor Novello Composer Award in 2020 and continues to be performed around the world.
 
His new piece for brass band is called Orbital, which is based on Samantha Harvey's 2024 Booker Prize winning novel. The novel, which draws upon the work and research of Carl Sagan, follows six astronauts aboard the International Space Station as they orbit Earth, reflecting on subjects including the existence or nature of God, the meaning of life, and existential threats such as climate change.
 
Schedules for the first performances of this new work are being drawn up by each band and will take place throughout 2026. It is intended that this piece is the first in a sequence of new music from established composers, and discussions with future collaborators are already underway.
 
A spokesperson for the five band initiative commented: "We're delighted to be working on this project together. At several moments across brass band repertoire history, new voices have emerged which injected energy, innovation and new ways of thinking into our music. Composers such as Gilbert Vinter, John McCabe and Philip Wilby were all well-established before they wrote for brass band later on in their careers, with such huge and long-lasting impact.
 
“This initiative similarly aims to discover new creative voices from outside of the movement. We are aware that there is already a huge quantity of new music for brass band, but not such an abundance of quality. One of the central objectives of this project is to create music which other bands will listen to and want to programme themselves and we are keen to work with each of the composers to introduce them to our musical world and advise them on what makes our most well-loved repertoire so frequently performed. We are extremely grateful to BBC Radio 3 for their belief in this project and assistance in funding this co-commission. Following the success of the series ‘Brass Banding with Hannah Peel’, it is fantastic to see a continued interest in supporting and programming music from brass bands in their broadcasting.”
 
The composer of Orbital, Richard Blackford commented: "I’m thrilled to have been chosen to collaborate closely with five of the greatest brass bands in the world on Orbital. The piece is virtuosic, full of drama and contrasts and, I hope - good tunes.”