We’ve spent the last few months working hard on the details of our performance of 3 pieces for a regional event as part of the National Concert Band Festival. Off we went to Cheltenham on Sunday, hoping that we might do a little better than the bronze award we received the last time we played at the festival about 10 years ago…
The performance went well and some of us may have begun to hope we might merit a silver award. I’m not sure anyone – except maybe Neil, our Musical Director – dared hope for anything more! Imagine our surprise and delight when it was announced that we are the recipients of a gold award. We couldn’t believe it!
The judges said they enjoyed our performances of Eine Kleine Yiddishe Ragmusik by Adam Gorb, October by Eric Whitacre, and Khvarenah: City of Light by Alga Mau, which was actually the winning entry to our composition competition back in 2015. They noted that we are a diverse community group and that our pleasure in playing music together was evident. The written comments included phrases such as ‘plenty of style’, ‘nice atmosphere’ and ‘good tone colour’. We couldn’t be more pleased!
As if that wasn’t exciting enough, we have been invited to play at the national event at the Royal Northern College of Music in April. We are really thrilled to have this exciting new experience to look forward to.
Don’t forget that your next opportunity to hear your gold award-winning band in concert is at 4pm on Saturday 15th December at St. Michael and All Angels’ church in Abingdon. We look forward to welcoming you to our Abingdon Christmas Carol.