Twelve Months on For NABBC Conducting Champion

As the 4th Conducting Competition approaches on June 8th, the National Association of Brass Band Conductors has revisited last year’s champion.

For Josh Geddes from Australia, victory in 2018 was very much a personal achievement in difficult family circumstances. Josh TOld A4B: “It was really the Monday of that week I knew I was going for sure. My wife told me I wasn’t allowed to call back with bad news!”

The resulting opportunities were immediate as Mark Heron, one of the judges, invited Josh to help out at a workshop with a Canadian group the very next day.

Josh would later return to the UK to take up his prize, a once in a lifetime opportunity conduct the world’s number one ranked band, The Cory Band. He added: “Many people want to know about the experience of either the competition or conducting Cory. Really that’s been fun. I’ve been able to meet a lot of fantastic musicians, really lovely people, and continue to work on the art and craft of being a conductor”.

For Josh, the NABBC conducting competition was also very different to other competitions he had entered, telling us: “The fact we were all locked in a room together fostered a very good esprit de corps. Also receiving the one on one feedback between the rounds helped”.

Anyone interested in entering should email the association secretary James Holt on [email protected] and an application pack will be provided. The closing date is Friday 26th April.