Musical director:
Manuel Ullmann
Without the Aue-Bad Schlema Miners’ Brass Band, the European Brass Band Festival would not exist today. It all began with the 25th anniversary of the orchestra, which was then still called the Aue City Brass Band. To mark this anniversary, the music association organised the ‘1st Festival of Brass Music’ in 1992. Thanks to the commitment of the many volunteers in the music association, the festival has since become international. This year, more than 200 orchestras from 33 nations have been invited by the hosts to the beautiful Ore Mountains.
Since 2024, musical director and fellow mountaineer Manuel Ullmann has also been the managing director of the music association and has given the orchestra new momentum. He is also passionate about the association’s activities, which include, above all, fostering a sense of unity among the musicians, who also get along well in their private lives. The hosts want to bring this breath of fresh air to the stage once again and, together with the audience, make the festival tent rock.
The music association hosting the festival can look back on almost 60 years of history: founded in 1967 as the ‘Vereinigtes Blasorchester Wismut Aue’ (United Wind Orchestra of Wismut Aue), the instruments from the company orchestra were taken over in 1990 by the newly founded association ‘Blasorchester der Stadt Aue’ (Wind Orchestra of the City of Aue).
The musicians received support in reorganising from the Herrenberg town band, with whom they still maintain close contact 35 years later. In 1993, the orchestra returned to its roots and found a new home in Schlema. Since then, it has been known as the Kurbad Schlema Miners’ Brass Band.
Following the merger of Aue and Bad Schlema, the ensemble is now back where it started: it is the wind orchestra for the large district town of Aue-Bad Schlema, the largest town in the Ore Mountains, and proudly bears the new town name in its name and the new town coat of arms in its logo.
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