Connaught Brass wins section prize at ROSL Annual Music Competition Awards

The top prize for the Mixed Ensembles category at this year’s Royal Over-Seas League (ROSL) Annual Music Competition was won by Connaught Brass.

The ensemble - composed of trumpeters Aaron Akugbo and Harry Plant alongside French Horn player Robyn Blair, trombone player Chris Brewster and tuba player Aled Meredith-Barrett - beat the section’s three other groups: the Delphine Trio, Flutes and Frets Duo, and Lumas Winds to win the £10,000 cash prize.

The competition’s second ensemble final, held in the ROSL’s Princess Alexandra Hall was judged by a panel of adjudicators including ROSL Arts artistic director Geoff Parkin, pianist Simon Callaghan, oboist Melinda Maxwell and conductor and trumpeter Gavin Henderson CBE.

Founded in 2016, Connaught Brass have become artists of the Tillett Trust, Kirckman Concert Society and the City Music Foundation, and have earned a place on the 2021/22 Britten Pears Arts Chamber Music Residency. Their other accolades include first Prize in the 2019 Philip Jones International Brass Ensemble Competition and Brass Ensemble prize in the 2018 Worshipful Company of Musicians Awards.

ROSL Annual Music Competition section finals have been taking place each Tuesday evening at Over-Seas House in London. The last section final will take place tomorrow night, with the Gold Medal Final taking place on 7 July at Wigmore Hall.

The ROSL Annual Music Competition grew out of a series of concerts inaugurated in 1947 and became competitive in 1952. A list of past competition winners can be found here.

You can find more information about the ROSL Annual Music Competition at the ROSL website.