Brass Banding In PGH

This month, I'm in Pittsburgh for the first time to play with the River City Brass. Besides catching up with some old friends from Eastman and various summer festivals, I'm trying to walk up as many hills as possible. Suggestions welcome.

The latest wrinkle in my learning process has been sight-reading parts written in Bb treble transposition. I'm trying to figure out where in the history of the British Band someone thought it was a good idea to write transposed parts for a chromatic instrument in a clef that shows up nowhere in classical repertoire. 

It makes sense that a genre born out of industrial grit and pragmatism would have a home in this city. My gratitude goes to director James Gourlay and all the folks in the band for their hospitality!