April 29, 2026

Hauts de France Brass Band compete in the 2026 European Brass Band Championships in Linz, Austria

Nigel Clarke attended the 2026 European Brass Band Championships at the Brucknerhaus in Linz, Austria, where his composition “Dial ‘H’ for Hitchcock” was performed by the Hauts de France Brass Band under the baton of Luc Vertommen. The band placed 6th out of 15 ensembles from across Europe. Nigel remarked that the band delivered one of the finest performances of his brass band works and congratulated the Hauts de France Brass Band and their conductor on their extraordinary achievement.

 

Nigel on stage with conductor Luc Vertommen, Hauts de France Brass Band after the performance of Dial ‘H’ for Hitchcock in the Brucknerhause, Linz, Austria

Hauts de France Brass Band performing Dial ‘H’ for Hitchcock in the Brucknerhause, Linz, Austria

Hauts de France Brass Band performing Dial ‘H’ for Hitchcock in the Brucknerhause, Linz, Austria

April 29, 2026

Hauts de France Brass Band win the 2026 Vlaams Flemish Open Brass Band Championships

Hauts de France Brass Band under the baton of Luc Vertommen win 2026 Vlaams Flemish Open Brass Band Championships in Mechelen, Belgium with their own choice test piece Nigel Clarke‘s Dial “H” for Hitchcock. The set test piece was `Sotscop’ by Ben Haemhouts.

Hauts de France Brass Band under the baton of Luc Vertommen perform at the 2026 Vlaams Flemish Open Brass Band Championships in Mechelen, Belgium

Hauts de France Brass Band celebrate thier win at the 2026 Vlaams Flemish Brass Band Champoinships

April 21, 2026

2nd Brueg[h]el’s Brush Concert at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts Belgium

On 16 April Peter Sheppard Skaerved gave the second concert in a series of music from the time of the Brueghel family at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts Belgium.  Peter also performed 8 miniatures from Book 1 of Nigel’s BRUEG[H]EL’S BRUSH.

 

Peter Sheppard Skaerved performing Nigel’s BRUEG[H]EL’S BRUSH in the Bruegel Room at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts Belgium.

Nigel Clarke in the Bruegel Room at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts Belgium before a performance of is BRUEG[H]EL’S BRUSH

Here below is a link to Youtube to hear a few moments of rehearsal before the concert on 16 April at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Belgium. Peter is Sheppard Skaerved is rehearsing Nigel’s `The Numbering at Bethlehem’ from Nigel’s Book 1 Brueg[h]el’s Brush.

See Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBrYNE51d88&list=RDrBrYNE51d88&start_radio=1

April 7, 2026

SAMURAI performed by North Texas Wind Symphony

Nigel’s wind orchestra work Samurai was performed by the world famous North Texas Wind Symphony at the University of Texas , Austin, under the direction of conductor Katharine Reed. The concert took place in the Margot and Bill Winspear Hall in the Murchison Performing Arts Centre on 26 March 2026.

In September the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of  Neil Thomson will record Nigel’s new arrangement of Samurai for symphony orchestra .

 

April 7, 2026

`Wedding Dance in the Open Air’ receives its Swedish Premiere.

Nigel’s Wedding Dance in the Open Air (Brueg[h]el’s Brush, Book 1) received its Swedish premiere at the Connect Festival 2026. The concert by Peter Sheppard Skaerved (Solo Violin) was held on 28 March at St Maria Kirk, Malmö. Other composers in the concert were Sadie Harrison and Robert Saxton. There were also many premieres of solo violin works by young Swedish composition students from the Malmö Academy of Music.
Wedding Dance in the Open Air  along with the complete Brueg[h]el’s Brush cycle of violin and viola miniatures (Books 1 & 2) will be recorded later in the year with Peter Sheppard Skaerved as soloist on the Devine Arts label.

Peter Sheppard Skaerved (violin) with Swedish student-composers in Malmo enjoying the audiences thanks.

MNBMNB
April 7, 2026

The Regimental Band of the Grenadier Guards perform `Earthrise’

Nigel’s EARTHRISE was performed by the Regimental Band of the Grenadier Guards, conducted by Captain Andrew Porter at Regents Hall, Oxford Street London on 26 March 2026. The concert, titled “A Voyage of Discovery,” celebrated America’s pivotal role in the space race.
Regimental Band of the Grenadier Guards under the direction of Captain Andrew Porter

Regimental Band of the Grenadier Guards under the direction of Captain Andrew Porter

March 22, 2026

Nigel Clarke’s BREUG[H]EL – Symphony for Piccolo/Flute to be recorded in September 2026

Nigel’s BRUEG[H]EL – symphony for piccolo/flute to be recorded this September by Jennifer M. Gunn (piccolo/flute) and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Neil Thomson. BRUEG[H]EL was composed specifically for Jennifer M. Gunn, who was appointed flute and piccolo of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra by Daniel Barenboim in 2005.

BRUEG[H]EL is inspired by four extraordinary Northern Renaissance paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Pieter Brueghel the Younger (father and son) displayed at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts Belgium. The four paintings are Pieter the Elder’s Winter Landscape with Bird Trap and The Fall of Icarus, (the latter of which is attributed to him though is possibly by a follower) as well as Pieter the Younger’s The Massacre of the Innocentsand Battle of Carnival and Lent, which are reworkings of his father’s work.

BRUEG[H]EL will be released on the Divine Arts record label in the spring of next year. The recording will also feature two additional works: ‘Samurai’, newly arranged for symphony orchestra, and ‘Pulp and Rags’ for string orchestra.

`Winter Landscape and Bird Trap’ – Photograph with thanks to The Royal Museums of Fine Arts Belgium

March 22, 2026

BRUEG[H]EL’S BRUSH at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts Belgium

Here is a selection of photographs documenting last week’s concert at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. The event featured Peter Sheppard Skaerved who performed solo violin and viola works in the museum’s Bruegel Room, surrounded by paintings from Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Pieter Brueghel the Younger. Peter played eight of Nigel’s solo violin and viola miniatures from Book One of ‘BRUEG[H]EL’S BRUSH’, alongside music composed during the Bruegel family’s era.

In May and June Peter Sheppard Skaerved will record both Book 1 and 2 of ‘BRUEG[H]EL’S BRUSH’ on the Devine Arts record label and will be released in Autumn of this year.

A heartfelt thank you to Christine Ayoub, Sabine van Sprang and the wonderful staff at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium for making this event possible.

 

Peter Sheppard Skaerved (violin) performing at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts Belgium

Peter Sheppard Skaerved (violin) performing at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts Belgium

 

 

Nigel Clarke introducing Brueg[h]el’s Brush at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts Belgium

 

Sabine van Sprang (RMFAB) introducing the works for Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Pieter Brueghel at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts Belgium.

 

 

Extract from Nigel Clarke’s Brueg[h]el’s Brush

November 10, 2025

Nigel Clarke’s Diary of A Madman

Here below is the winning performance of my ‘Diary of a Madman’ at the French National Brass Band Championships in 2023 by Hautes-de-Hauts-de-France Brass Band under the baton of Luc Vertommen. `DIARY OF A MADMAN’ depicts Ukrainian resistance against the unjust despotism of Putin’s Russian invasion of 24th February 2022.

The are various musical quotes used throughout `DIARY OF A MADMAN’ to emphasis Ukraine’s resistance. It opens with almost toy-soldier like percussion, before an agressive outburst that represents the first days of invasion back in 2022. Rising above the smoky theatre of war, we hear a distant cornet give a rendition of the Ukrainian Nation Anthem (The glory and freedom of Ukraine has not yet perished. Luck will still smile on us brother-Ukrainians). The solo cornet soon enters a fragile duet with a second cornet accompanied by dark undertones. One by one, we hear short shards of aggressive fanfare-like figures from various instruments in the band. The mood breaks – we hear strident fortissimo whole-tone scales representing pealing church bells, warning of danger. In contrast, we also hear pianissimo whole-tone scales announcing that the enemy’s troops are falling back. A counter-offensive soon takes centre stage, and battles and skirmishes are heard, with short quotations from Mussorgsky’s `Great Gates of Kyiv’ symbolising the defenders’ heroic struggle. All sides are victims of the Dictator’s ambition! The slow central section offer us moments of melancholic beauty and utilises Henry Purcell’s `When I am laid in earth’ (`Dido’s Lament’ from Dido and Aeneas 1688). This music represents the loss of homes, dignity and loved ones. There are occasional hints at better times as the theme of the parading toy tin soldiers is heard from afar, like a distant memory. Here is quote from the tryrant Julius Caesar, which should still give us sleepless nights. To announce the final push, we hear a church bell strike and an air raid siren signalling a ferocious musical counter-attack. After one final rendition of the Purcell theme, Diary of a Madman closes with a mood of triumph over tyranny.
“Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar”.
Watch `DIARY OF A MADMAN’ performed by Hautes-de-Hauts-de-France Brass Band with conductor Luc Vertommen

 

August 27, 2025

`Outrageous Fortune’ (Symphony for Trombone, Actor and Orchestra) – Receives it’s Premiere at the Trombonanza Festival, Santa Fe, Argentina

Treatro Municipal, Santa Fe, Argentina

OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE (symphony for trombone soloist, actor and symphony orchestra) – PREMIERE

In 2025, Clarke re-imagined his symphony OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE from wind orchestra to symphony orchestra. OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE‘s premiere was given at the Trombonaza Festival in Santa Fe, Argentina, with trombone soloist Brett Baker and the Orquesta Sinfónica Provincial de Santa Fe under the baton of maestro  Silvio Viega – Nigel took on the actor’s role for this performance. The premiere was given to a capacity audience in the beautiful Santa Fe’s Opera theatre on the 8 August 2025.

 

OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE is  a melancholic drama, bleak and sardonic in style. It follows programmatically the story of Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet. The score is prefaced with the bard’s despairing words: “Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind”.

Hamlet is a tale of conspiracy, betrayal, suicide, revenge and murder, and also a ghost story. Both the trombone soloist and the actor take on the role of the Prince of Denmark, Hamlet. OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE reflects the protagonist’s despair, his self-doubt and self-loathing and his advance towards mental breakdown. Hamlet’s character is full of bitterness, but alongside this he shows profound wisdom beyond his years. Nigel set two of Hamlet’s soliloquys to music: “O that this too too sullied flesh would melt” and “To be, or not to be, – that is the question”.

OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE was originally written and dedicated to Brett Baker, Natalie Grady, Reed Thomas and the Middle Tennessee State University Wind Ensemble (MTSU).

Poster outside the Teatro Municpal, Santa Fe

 

Rehearsal for `Outrageous Fortune’

 

Rehearsing `Outrageous Fortune' Silvio Viegas (conductor), Brett Baker (Trombone), Nigel Clarke (composer) and the Orquesta Sinfónica Provincial de Santa Fe

Rehearsing `Outrageous Fortune’ Silvio Viegas (conductor), Brett Baker (Trombone), Nigel Clarke (composer) and the Orquesta Sinfónica Provincial de Santa Fe

`Outrageous Fortune’ premiere at the Teatro Municpal, Santa Fe 8 August

 

Brett Baker with Silvio Viegas, Nigel Clarke and the Orquesta Sinfónica Provincial de Santa Fe

 

Nigel with maestro Silvio Viegas after the concert

 

Ruben Carighi (Trombonist and Trombonanza Artistic Director), Nigel Clarke (Composer), Silvio Viegas (Conductor), Brett Baker (Trombone Soloist) and James Gourlay (Tuba Soloist in the Concert)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright Nigel Clarke. All Rights Reserved
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