TOP TEENAGE brass talent Matthew White will play in Holmfirth later this month.

The 19-year-old winner of the 2010 BBC Radio 2 young brass soloist competition will play at Holmfirth Civic Hall on Saturday April 17 as the guest of Hepworth Band.

The evening is the first of a four part concert series called Championship Brass in the Holme Valley.

It is being staged as part of the Holme Valley Brass Band Weekend and as a prelude to the 84th Holme Valley Contest.

Matthew is currently studying at the Royal Northern College of Music.

He is from Bolton and was brought up in a family of brass players. Both his parents and his sister are all players.

Matthew is a former principal euphonium of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain and is presently principal euphonium with the Pemberton Old band, having previously played for Leyland and Wingates.

Matthew is delighted to have won this years BBC Radio 2 Young Brass Soloist competition..

“Although this was the third time I’ve played in the competition, it doesn’t get any easier as the standard improves each year,” he said.

The concert starts at 7.30pm, tickets £6 are available from Wm Sykes & Sons Estate Agents, Holmfirth, the White Horse Inn, Jackson Bridge and Kirklees Box Offices.

The Brass Band contest begins on the following day, Sunday April 18 also in the Civic Hall.

This year, the contest committee has introduced a youth section which will open the day’s competition at 11am.

The draw for the section is held in advance of the contest which will feature Dobcross Youth Band conducted by James Garlick, Hade Edge Youth Band (Simon Wood), Hade Edge Training Band (Simon Wood) and Scissett Youth Band (Gavin Brown).

The draw for the Section A and B Bands will be held at 10.30am.

First up are Section B whose contest begins at 12.30pm.

Bands entered are: Boarhurst Silver (David Ashworth), Clifton and Lightcliffe (John Clay), Dobcross Youth (James Garlick), Huddersfield and Ripponden (Tony Jaeger-Fozard), Skelmanthorpe B (Philip Garlick), Stalybridge Old (conductor to be announced), Uppermill (Alan Widdop) and Yorkshire Traction Honley (Nicholas Eastwood).

The Section A bands will line up to compete at 4.15pm.

The bands competing are Hade Edge (Simon Wood), Holme Silver Disposables Group (Duncan Beckley) and Wakefield Metropolitan (Norman Law).

The contest adjudicator is Kevin Wadsworth.

And once the honours have been decided, there will be one final event of the day.

At about 6.30pm, though the time might vary because of the nature of competing, the bands will gather outside the Civic Hall in Holmfirth.

They will march from outside the Postcard pub, along Huddersfield Road and down Victoria Street in the town centre to the Old Bridge Hotel where adjudicator Stuart Fawcett will judge deportment and award the last of the day’s prizes.

It all adds up to a big brass weekend for the Holme Valley and for its many bands.

All they need now is fine weather and the crowds to turn up to the Saturday concert and Sunday contests.