U.S. Open Brass Band Championships

11/24/2025

Congratulations to all the competing bands at the US Open this past weekend!

11/22/2025

Welcome to the US Open 2025!
Motor City Academy Brass Band starts us off for the day.

11/22/2025

Today is the day!

Before the 2025 U.S. Open Brass Band Championships kick off this morning, we want to extend a sincere thank you to our three main sponsors for this year’s contest:

Dillon Music
Wessex Tubas
Mercer and Barker

Your support makes it possible for us to continue presenting this wonderful event year after year. We’re truly grateful.

Thank you!

11/21/2025

It’s a real privilege to have James Gourlay with us as our guest clinician this weekend. In addition to adjudicating on Saturday, he’ll also be conducting the Clarkston High School Brass Band in concert just before the awards ceremony at the U.S. Open Brass Band Championships. Here he is rehearsing them yesterday afternoon.

We hope to see you on Saturday!
Eight bands. Eight unique programs. You won’t find better entertainment for the price ($25).

Tickets and souvenir programs will be available at the door (cash or card), and students through high school get in free. You can also pick up the 2025 U.S. Open pint glasses and t-shirts, and browse instrument and mouthpiece vendors on site all day.

See you Saturday at 10:00 am! 🎺🏆

11/05/2025

We hope you’ll join us for the 2025 U.S. Open Brass Band Championships on Saturday, November 22nd at the Clarkston High School Performing Arts Center in Clarkston, Michigan!

🎟️ Admission
Tickets are $25 at the door (cash or card accepted).
Students (through high school) are free! Bring your young musicians for a full day of incredible performances and inspiration.

🍽️ Lunch
Food will be available for purchase onsite so you can stay for the music all day long.

🎺👕Vendors /Swag
There will be vendors there for the day, as well as US Open swag available for purchase!

2025 U.S. Open Brass Band Championships Schedule

10:00 am Motor City Academy Brass Band

10:45 am Old Crown Brass Band

11:30 am Imperial Brass

12:15 pm Motor City Brass Band

1:00 pm Lunch

1:15 pm Buskers (Top 3)

1:45 pm Chicago Brass Band

2:30 pm Five Lakes Silver Band

3:15 pm Dublin Silver Band

4:15 pm Clarkston High School Brass Band

5:00 pm Awards

It’s shaping up to be an exciting competition with varied programs from each of these outstanding bands!

Make sure you come and see James Gourlay as a guest conductor with Clarkston High School Brass Band.

We look forward to seeing you there! 🎶 🏆

10/16/2025

We are honored to have Stephen Bulla join our adjudicators' panel for this year’s U.S. Open Brass Band Championships. His distinguished career brings a depth of insight that will greatly enrich the experience for all involved.
Please join us in extending a warm welcome to Mr. Bulla.

Stephen Bulla is a versatile composer with experience in all areas of composition that drive a multifaceted career. His work as a conductor and as a classically trained pianist continues to inform his worldwide commissioned and widely published catalog of cross-genre music.
Following his magna cm laude graduation from Berklee College of Music, he won a nationwide audition to join “The President's Own” United States Marine Band as resident composer and arranger to the White House in support of five U.S. Presidents.
During that time, he also worked alongside Academy Award-winning film composer John Williams, who called Stephen “one of the most accomplished musicians of his generation.”
His television work includes scores for Discovery Channel and PBS series, and his arrangements have been performed by The Manhattan Transfer, Sarah Vaughan, Mel Tormé, Marvin Hamlisch, Shirley Jones, Doc Severinsen, Jordan Sparks, and many others. His first feature-length film score is Granite Rapids Moon.
Stephen is cofounder, writer, and producer for the acclaimed jazz ensemble Spiritual to the ’Bone, for which Billboard magazine wrote, “The ’bone team tears through spirituals...with amazingly boppin' results.” (December 1993)
According to ASCAP surveys, Stephen Bulla’s music continues to be performed and streamed internationally in 48 countries — in the concert hall, on radio, television, and online outlets.
www.bullamusic.com

10/13/2025

We’re thrilled to welcome back Jessica Leach Sneeringer to the 2025 U.S. Open Brass Band Championships adjudication team!

Jessica Sneeringer is a graduate of The Ohio State University earning Bachelor’s Degrees in both Music Education and Trombone Performance as well as a Masters Degree in Music Education. Jessica is currently in her 26th year of teaching, this being her 21st year as the Director of Bands at Columbus Academy in Gahanna, Ohio as well as the Chair of the Performing Arts Department and the Dixon Art Chair Award Recipient. Since 2012, Jessica has been the conductor of the Athena Brass Band and is honored to have had the opportunity to conduct the band at the 2021 Midwest Clinic as well as the IWBC 2024 Conference in Japan and the RNCM Festival of Brass in the UK, January 2025. She enjoyed the opportunity to conduct the Hannaford Street Silver Band last month.

Throughout her career, Jessica has been a clinician, adjudicator, and coach for several outstanding groups. She is currently on staff at Jazz Arts Group (Columbus) as the director of the Columbus Youth Jazz Ensemble as well as the director of the Columbus Community Jazz Band. A freelance trombonist Jessica plays lead with the Springfield Symphony Jazz Orchestra (under the direction of Todd Stoll) and occasionally with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra. She has also performed with the 1999 Disney Collegiate All-Star Band (lead), Athena Brass Band (bass), Monarch Brass (bass), Johnny Mathis, The Who, and a variety of other ensembles. Jessica is a member of the Phi Beta Mu Bandmasters Fraternity, the American School Band Directors Association, and the Women Band Director’s International.

Jessica has gained a reputation for being an engaging, energetic, and artistic conductor. Over the 16 years that she conducted the Central Ohio Brass Band the group enjoyed much success including being 1st Section Champions a record five times at the North American Brass Band Association Championships; the band was invited to such prestigious events as the Great American Brass Band Festival, the Butlins Contest in the UK, the Ohio Music Education Association Conference, and the 2019 International Trombone Festival. Having left COBB’s podium in 2020, Jessica moved to the NABBA adjudication panel. She has also been an adjudicator and/or clincian at the US Open, the Dublin Festival of Brass, and the 2025 Mid-Atlantic Brass Band Festival.

Jessica makes her home in Gahanna, Ohio with her kids Josh and Jordan.

10/09/2025

The U.S. Open Brass Band Championships will take place on November 21–22, 2025, in Clarkston, Michigan.

The organizing committee is pleased to announce the first of this year’s adjudicators: Dr. James Gourlay.
In addition to his adjudication duties, Dr. Gourlay will visit Clarkston High School prior to the Championships to work with the Clarkston High School Brass Band. He will also conduct the ensemble in a featured performance during their mini concert preceding the awards ceremony on November 22.

Dr. James Gourlay DMA, MMus, FRNCM, FLCM is a leading performer, teacher and academic. James has been Head of School, Wind, Brass and Percussion at the RNCM) as well as Deputy Principal and Director of the School of Music at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, now known as the Royal Conservatoire for Scotland. James has been a member of the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, English Brass, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of Zurich Opera House and has performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Accademia Nazionale de Santa Cecilia, and the Vienna Philharmonic. Gourlay’s work with brass band continues to be extensive. He has been professional conductor of the Brassband Berneroberland, Williams Fairey Band, the Grimethorpe Colliery Band and the Brighouse and Rastrick band, as well as serving as a guest conductor with the Brassband Treize Etoiles. He is currently Music Director of the River City Brass Band, the world’s only full-time professional brass band, is International Chair of Low Brass Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, and is Director of Bands, Conductor in Residence, and professor of tuba and euphonium at Duquesne University.

11/27/2024

We had an incredible time at the U.S. Open U.S. Open Brass Band Championships this past weekend.
9 bands with completely different programs, Great crowd, great vendors.
Thank you to our adjudicators, Tom Davoren, Jessica Sneeringer, and Jamie Hood. Thank you to our special guest and masterclass clinician, Paul Lovatt-Cooper.
Thank you to the bands for giving your best and truly inspiring and entertaining.

Thank you to GravCap Brewing and to Clarkston High School for hosting us for the third straight year.

We'd like to give a special thank you to our main sponsors for the 2024 U.S. Open Championships!

Wessex Tubas, Genevabandroomusa, and Dillon Music!

We couldn't do this without your generous support! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Finally, we'd like to thank the Great Lakes Brass Band Association for all of their planning, preparation and hard work in hosting our event.

November 21st and 22nd, 2025!
Please save these dates for next year's Buskers and U.S. Open Brass Band Championships!

We hope that everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

11/23/2024

...and we're off! What an exciting performance from Motor City Academy Brass Band to get the 2024 U.S. Open Brass Band Championships started!
Bravo!

11/19/2024

Please join us this weekend for an incredible day of music making...9 Brass bands, 9 completely different programs!

Hear from Christopher Ward about the upcoming U.S. Open Brass Band Championships!

11/19/2024

Our new 2024 heathered green t-shirts and pint glasses will be available for sale at Gravel Capital Brewery for the Buskers Night and at Clarkston High School Performing Arts Center for the U.S. Open.

t-shirt = $20
pint glass = $10
cash or card is accepted

11/22/24 - 8:00 pm - Buskers @ GravCap Brewing

11/23/24 - 9:30 am - U.S. Open Brass Band Championships @ Clarkston High School Performing Arts Center

Please come support the bands and grab some souvenirs!