The Newark Brass Festival 2011 will be held on 5-6 February 2011.

There will be a competition, with top-name judges, open to players aged 9 to 30, from grade five to conservatoire standard and above.

Ages 9-16 compete on Sunday morning and the two finalists from this group will play in the concert on Sunday afternoon. The open class entrants (ages 11-30 at grade 8 and above) compete on Saturday and the two finalists will play in the Sunday afternoon concert.

This year's prizes are:

Open class winner:   £1,000
Open class runner-up:   £250

Age 9-16 winner:   £250
Age 9-16 runner-up:   £100

A concert rounds off the weekend and this year will feature not only the competition finalists and some of our judges, but also last year's overall winner, tuba-player Edd Leech, playing an original piece commissioned for the concert and composed by George Richford, especially for him.

This year's open class winner will be invited to perform a commissioned piece at next year's concert.

All the action takes place in the historic market town of Newark, Nottinghamshire.

We are proud to continue our association with trombone legend Denis Wick, our patron. This year, as last, Denis will be taking an active interest in Festival activities.

Here is what Edd Leech, last year's open class winner, wrote to us:

The Newark Brass Festival is a fantastic opportunity for musicians to get experience as a performer while recieving professional feedback from the judges, who are all established in the music profession. The £1000 prize money is a great help as I have put it towards the cost of my tuition fees for my Masters course at the Royal Academy of Music. As well as this the Festival commission a piece for the winner to perform at the final concert at the next competition so it will be exciting to see that develop across the year. This is a very prestigious and accomplished competition and it would benefit anyone wanting to boost their musical career.

My £250 went towards a couple of new mutes and lots of new copies of music so that I have my own for the future instead of borrowing my teacher's, so it went towards a very worthwhile and longterm cause! Thank you!

I bought a leather gig bag to carry my tuba around in, so thank you to prize sponsors Lincolnshire Co-operative and the Festival.