Roy had a whole series of announcements at rehearsal last week. He started with the Essex Country Show: he’d received a letter from the organisers thanking us for our involvement, complimenting us on our playing, and inviting us to keep 10-11 September 2011 free for what will be the 25th year of the show. So, we’re obviously doing something right. And to prove it (if further proof is needed), here’s a picture of some band members playing at the show:
As mentioned previously, that was Liam’s last rehearsal with the band – for now at least! Good luck and we hope you’ll be back to lend a hand at Christmas.
There was loads more, but it related to our “adopt a composer” activities and other long term plans so I’ll do a separate post on that.
I did, however, have a chat with David – our principal clarinettist, deputy musical director, and tuner-in-chief* – and it turns out that he and Roy are hatching some diabolical scheme to help us improve our tuning and ensemble playing. Apart from the “diabolical” bit, I think this is really good news and I’m hoping we’ll get some material for the blog in due course…
Annual rehearsal day
We have our annual rehearsal day coming up this Sunday (10 October). This is an opportunity for band members to get together and work through some pieces under the baton of an experienced composer or conductor. The roll call of previous visiting conductors is very impressive, and would be even moreso if I could remember them all. Perhaps someone can jog my memory and I’ll include the list in my post-event analysis. However, in the past, we have definitely hosted Philip Sparke – and we have the photos to prove it!
The conductor this year is David Kendall. He was a founder member and chairman of BASBWE which he set up with Malcolm Binney (a previous guest of ours) and a few other musicians to champion windband music. He was associated with the Croydon School’s Windband for many years – a group that was extremely highly regarded at a time when youth bands were still quite rare. David moved to Cleveland Music Services before retiring to France.
The rehearsal day is at Grays Convent (thanks to Penny for organising the venue – again!) from 10am until 4pm. The address is: College Avenue, Grays, RM17 5UX. I hope to see as many of us as possible on Sunday and in the unlikely event that you need any further persuasion, do remember that lunch is free! But, bring your own mug.
*This is not an official band title. I made it up, but I really think every band needs one.
