Nigel Hess’ vivacious and colourful A Christmas Overture originally commissioned as an orchestral work by John Rutter for his 2007 Christmas Festival proved an instant success with audience and orchestra alike. Traditional carols skilfully juxtaposed and interwoven provide the thematic material. These include Ding Dong! Merrily On High; Il Est Né Le Divin Enfant; Infant Holy Infant Lowly; Personent Hodie; We Wish You A Merry Christmas and Angels From The Realms Of Glory which brings the overture to a majestic close. Fragments of other carols appear along the way to enrich the texture of what is surely one of the mostattractive pieces written for the festive season. Brass Band Grade 4/5. Duration: 7 minutes 30 seconds

Dark Arteries was commissioned by Rambert Dance Company and first performed in May 2015 with the Tredegar Town Band sharing the stage with Rambert dancers. Dark Arteries is a personal and at times highly wrought response to the Miners’ Strike and its aftermath. It is in three movements the first and last are expansive with widely contrasting sound worlds from dark brooding melodies and the haunting sounds of solo flugel horn to wild syncopations on cornets suggestive of an imposing but often bleak mining landscape.   In 2016 Higgins re-worked Dark Arteries into a virtuoso concert suite which captures the essence of the work in threeconnected movements. Dark Arteries Suite was premiered by the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain conducted by Bramwell Tovey at the Barbican Centre London 22 April 2017.