Aldbourne Band continued its busy start to the New Year with a slightly chilly but top-quality joint concert at Dorchester Abbey with the Reading Phoenix Choir and Aldbourne Bands Musical Director Glyn Williams
Due to the unprecedented amounts of snow in North Wiltshire the band had to get creative in getting all of its players physically there with some players spending hours digging their cars out of their drives, and the band coach taking a slightly circuitous route to gather up all the players on its way to Dorchester-on-Thames! Further complications arose with two of the front row players falling ill earlier in the day, however once again the Blitz spirit prevailed and Ian Barnes (normally on top 2nd cornet) superbly rose to the challenge of second man down! A massive thanks must also go to Taddy Evans Evans of Cory Band who stepped in to help us on 2nd cornet, and to all those in the banding community who aided in our search for last-minute cornet players!!
The concert was held in an amazing venue of Dorchester Abbey with its fabulous acoustics to an appreciative audience. With the temperatures dropping rapidly outside on the coldest night of the year(!), the band kept itself warm performing a range of contemporary music such as the The Incredibles, Chick Corea’s La Fiesta and Philip Harper’s ‘The Greatest Storyteller’ which featured a stunning version of ‘Pure Imagination’ from the band’s solo euphonium, Matt Dixon. Reading Phoenix Choir wowed the audience with their pieces which included John Scott’s ‘Behold O God’ and a lovely arrangement of the traditional American folk tune ‘Shenandoah’ to name but a few. The band also performed some fantastic joint items with the choir, including Sandy Smith’s arrangement of John William’s Hymn to the Fallen, the Hallelujah Chorus, and Hubert Parry’s Coronation Anthem ‘I am Glad’.
Aldbourne Band really enjoyed their first joint concert with Reading Phoenix Choir and look forward to this being the beginning of a great musical relationship.
Aldbourne Band now is looking forward to focussing on the run into the WEBBA Area competition on the 10th March , where they will be performing Seascapes in the Championship section. #Aldbourneband #Dabchicks
