Band secretary Ian Smith said: “The
band are off again up the road to Waterlooville to play in
the magnificent hall at Oaklands Catholic School (Stakes
Hill Road, Waterlooville, PO7 7BW). We had just short of 175
people at our Christmas concert at the same venue. It was
reasonably well supported but we've got plenty of capacity
for more audience and it would be lovely if we got a
good-sized audience for our spring concert.
“This will our third visit to
Oaklands and we are looking forward to returning for our
spring concert.
“Our musical director is Warrant
Officer Andy Hall who is the bandmaster with the British
Army Band at Tidworth. Andy has been Emsworth's MD since
2019 and during his tenure, the band have reached a high
standard of performance.
“The programme for our spring
concert will include many popular and well-loved melodies
from stage and screen and beyond. Our aim is to provide
something for everyone from John Williams to Irving Berlin
to Neil Diamond. A real cross-section of the musical
spectrum.
“As usual there's a huge variety of
music in this concert. We have got The Pirates of The
Caribbean – The Curse of The Black Pearl and we're also
playing a piece by Nigel Hess called The London Eye which is
a really lovely piece. We’ve also got Irving Berlin’s Let's
Face The Music and Dance which is a complete contrast to Mr
Hess and we've also got the greatest hits of Neil Diamond
including Sweet Caroline and Beautiful Noise.”
The concert date is Saturday, April
18 at 7.30pm. Tickets are £15 with no charge for 16s and
under. The ticket price includes a glass of wine or soft
drink during the interval.
Tickets can be bought on the door
or using Eventbrite at
www.eventbrite.co.uk .
Band secretary Ian loves being part
of it all: “It is a big ask and people have got busy lives.
We require people to commit the time but everybody turns up
and people really enjoy it. We all sit down and the baton
goes up and off we go. It is wonderful to be playing in a
large ensemble. I'm in the back row playing the euphonium.
We've got the clarinets and the woodwind and we've got a
good line with trumpets and trombones. It's a good mix. It
is about 40 of us in the band. I have been in the band for
about ten years and it really is just great to make music. I
bought myself a euphonium about 25 years ago and I've been
playing ever since. It is a challenge to read all the little
dots but it's great to be playing together. You have to
bring it home and you have to practise. You have to work at
you're doing but it's a really nice hobby and a really nice
way of spending time with other people.”
Sussex World 15th April
