Bristol has launched a competition for composers to create an official fanfare to celebrate the city, in advance of its 800th anniversary next year.
It would make the city the first in the UK to have its own fanfare – but its ebullient mayor, George Ferguson, has challenged other cities to follow the example and commission their own.
The competition was launched with a performance led by Alison Balsom, an internationally renowned trumpeter, at Paddington station in London, the terminus for trains to and from Bristol and the west country.
To the astonishment of commuters, she played the Fanfare for St Edmundsbury composed by Benjamin Britten, first performed in 1959 in Bury St Edmunds.
The winning composition, which should last for no more than four minutes and be scored for three trumpets, will win its creator £1,000 and the glory of having it first performed at the Bristol Proms this summer, where Balsom will be among the stars.
Ferguson said: “When you think about how evocative and powerful a stirring fanfare can be, it’s astonishing that all cities don’t have one of their own.”
Tom Morris, artistic director of the Bristol Old Vic, where the proms will be performed, added: “Bristol deserves a fanfare. Maybe every city does.”
