Summer Concert
The band's annual summer concert took place in King's Park Church on Thursday 18th June. For the first time, the band had three ensembles performing: the main band conducted by Chris Bradley, Junior Band conducted by Claire McIlreavy and Learners' Band conducted by Alan Pratt.
The band opened the evening with James Curnow's Fanfare and Flourishes, following this with a complete contrast in the form of Jay Ungar's beautiful Ashokan Farewell. Next was a performance of Delibes' Flower Duet from Lakme, featuring cornet players Natasha Newson and David Peat. This first set was completed by Peter Graham's symphonic study for brass band, Dimensions.
Next on stage were the recently formed Learners' Band. This group was made up of six young players who performed German Folk Song, Duke Street, and their favourite item, The Saints.
To finish off the first half, the Junior Band played Theme From Rocky, Handbags and Gladrags, another rendition of The Saints, and finally Singing In The Rain.
The band returned to the stage for the second half, opening it with James Swearingen's exciting Valero. Following this, trombonist Jennifer Aitken was featured in Hoagy Carmichael's Georgia On My Mind.
Music from stage and screen was to the fore for the next part of the concert with Alan Catherall's arrangement of the Jurassic Park theme, Darrol Barry's arrangement of I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miserables and Adrian Drover's arrangement of the main theme from Star Wars.
The second half finished with Kenneth Downie's emotional In Perfect Peace and Alan Fernie's arrangement of the Jimmy Webb classic MacArthur Park.
But the concert wasn't over yet. The Junior Band players returned to the stage to join their older colleagues in a performance of Highland Cathedral.30/6/09
