Community, Parish Council & Village
West Bergholt Concert Band
Calling for Brass & Woodwind PlayersWest Bergholt Concert Band are calling for Brass & Woodwind players (Grade 1 upwards) to join them for an Open Rehearsal. Taking place at Heathlands Primary School (CO6 3JF), this Friday, 5th May, between 6pm – 9pm, this is free Continue reading “Calling for Brass & Woodwind Players”
Bach to the Beach BoysGraham Wilson reports on the Concert Band’s activities:
The band are well into rehearsals for our first concert of the year. This will again be raising money for St Helena Hospice at Clacton’s West Cliff Theatre. This year’s concert features music from “Bach to the Beach Boys”, ranging from Vaughan-Williams, Henry Mancini and Waldteufel to South Pacific, Glenn Miller and the Beatles…so come along for a great afternoon of music on Sunday 12th March at 3pm. Tickets are just Continue reading “Bach to the Beach Boys with Concert Band”
The West Bergholt Concert Band’s next outing is to the church of St Peter ad Vincula, Coggeshall. Starting at 7:30pm on Saturday 10th December they promise to give a “Christmas Cracker of a concert, full of Christmas favourites, old & new”.
Music will include: Continue reading “Christmas Cracker Concert at Coggeshall”
1966 And All That1966 was a memorable year for many things, most notably England winning the World Cup after the Cup was lost but then found by Pickles. But locally music made a name for itself as the Radio Caroline pirate radio ship MV Mi Amigo ran aground on the beach at Frinton. With Pirate Radio pulsing on the airwaves everybody was in to the latest music and West Bergholt Concert Band aim to bring that all back to life in their special concert for Children In Need.
The Concert Band will be playing a selection of music both from and inspired by the revolutionary year that was 1966; it will include:
The concert takes place in the Church of St Mary the Virgin on Saturday 19th November from 7:30pm. Tickets are available on the door, £5 for adults, under-18s free.
The band have already been very busy around the village this autumn, holding an open rehearsal at Heathlands in September and a primary school workshop (again at Heathlands) in October. Coming up as well we have a concert in the Church of St Mary in November, and of course we’ll be playing for the village Remembrance Service.
Surprisingly the workshop was the first one we’ve held at Heathlands, as historically the school musicians were encouraged to join the band by its founder Sid Cooper who taught music there. These days our approach to maintaining a wide range of ages in the band is to hold regular primary school workshops, which have proven to be an incredibly popular and fun way for us to encourage tomorrow’s musicians. We were delighted to see so many players from Heathlands join us for the workshop and perform a wonderful “mini concert” at the end of it, and to see such enthusiasm for music at the school. The final word goes to somebody at the workshop…
The band made everyone feel very welcome indeed – what a fun afternoon!
At the time of writing this, we’re looking forward to performing our “1966 And All That” concert in the village. This will be our first concert on home turf for a couple of years. This time we’ll be raising money for Children In Need to add to the £35,000 that we’ve raised for local & national charities since we started recording the amounts a dozen years ago. That amount includes:
As always we’ll end the year with a concert featuring the wonderful music of Christmas. This year we are at the beautiful St Peter ad Vincula Church in Coggeshall again on Saturday 10th December at 7:30pm. The concert will include music from Vaughan-Williams, Irving Berlin, Leroy Anderson (Sleigh Ride), The Beach Boys (Little Saint Nick) and many others. We’ll also be performing a selection of carols, some to sing to, and some beautiful arrangements that are perfect for listening to. We hope you’ll join us for a lovely evening of festive music in a lovely setting.
As always, details on all of our events are available on the band website www.wbcb.org. New players of any age are always welcome to come along on Friday evenings at Heathlands School, or our next Open Rehearsal on 20th January. We look forward to seeing you at our Christmas Concert, and we wish you a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year.
Free Fun Music Day with Concert BandWest Bergholt Concert Band are offering a FREE Fun Music Day for developing Brass & Woodwind players. Taking place at Heathlands School on Saturday 8th October there are two sessions: Continue reading “Free Fun Music Day with Concert Band”
Concert Band to hold Open RehearsalThis Friday, 23rd September, West Bergholt Concert Band is holding an open rehearsal, opening its doors to new members, giving them a chance to enjoy a FREE night of band playing Continue reading “Concert Band to hold Open Rehearsal”
Do you play Brass or Woodwind?If so, and you can make the time free, why not pop along, bring your brass or woodwind instrument with you, and join in with the West Bergholt Concert & Training Bands on Friday 22nd April at Heathlands School. The Band has been playing music for fun since 1978 and are always Continue reading “Do you play Brass or Woodwind?”
After a well-earned summer break the band start their autumn events with an open rehearsal for brass and woodwind players on Friday September 18th at Heathlands. This is a great opportunity for anyone who fancies giving the band a try to come along for the first time, alongside other new starters, to see what playing in a band is all about. Our Autumn 2015 programme is themed around “Stage and Screen” and will include music ranging from Miss Saigon, Grease and Wicked through to Rocky, Gabriel’s Oboe and The Blues Brothers. The majority of this term’s music is brand new, so we’ll all be trying the music for the first time together. After that we’ll be performing another of our popular workshops with local primary schools on October 10th, and a secondary schools workshop and concert on November 14th at Philip Morant school. 2015 marks 25 years since the band’s founder suddenly passed away, so it’s appropriate that we’re performing a concert at a school whose concert hall still contains a plaque commemorating the affection in which he was held.
The band’s summer activities marked a milestone for our current conductor, with our concert at Marks Hall marking the 100th concert he has conducted as sole conductor, although that didn’t prevent him from leaving his baton in his car at the start, or prevent him from missing the significance of the concert. Having decided not to risk the showers which were threatened but never arrived, the band performed a programme of recent favourites ranging from Mancini & John Williams through to Bon Jovi and Joseph inside a lovely atmospheric barn, which contributed to the relaxed atmosphere of the event. Shortly after that we returned to Coggeshall’s St Peter ad Vincula Church for a wonderful concert featuring music from Rachmaninov and Gershwin through to James Horner and Les Miserables, with the concert highlights including a new percussion heavy arrangement of Africa by Toto, and the audience demanding an encore of our Neil Diamond medley.
The band continues to raise thousands of pounds for charities, and have a fully booked calendar for 2016. We also continue to welcome players of all ages and joining couldn’t be easier – there’s no audition, you can just pop along any Friday evening, and you don’t have to make every week. We remain a fun and friendly bunch who help each other out, especially when the notes get tricky. Everything you need to know about the band (including details of all our events and how to join us) is on our website, or you can call Graham on 01206 824157.
Concert Bands Goes 1940sThe band’s 2015 started with a 1940s concert at Clacton’s West Cliff Theatre, with the Cavender Singers helping us to raise over £1,300 for St Helena Hospice. The concert also marked exactly 25 years since we performed a memorial concert for the band’s founder at the West Cliff, so it was both a successful and emotional afternoon. As ever at the West Cliff the band received fabulous feedback for both the programme and the performance, and we enjoyed the always interactive audience.
A few weeks prior to the concert we held the first of this year’s schools workshops, this time at Bishop William Ward school in Great Horkesley, which resulted in a number of musicians from the school joining Training Band, showing how popular and successful these workshops continue to be.
After the success of last year’s band stand concert and the fabulous weather we were blessed with, this year’s summer concerts again start with an outdoor concert. Just like the band stand last year, we’ll be playing at a brand new venue for the band, Marks Hall Estate on Sunday June 14th. We’ve got a varied and family-friendly programme including music from Batman, Frozen, and the Lego Movie, as well as music by Mancini, John Williams and Bizet for the grown-ups. It’s going to be a beautifully sunny day in a gorgeous venue so please come along for a really enjoyable afternoon of great music.
We’re then returning to a wonderful venue for our Summer Concert on Saturday July 11th at 7:30pm – Coggeshall’s beautiful Church of St Peter ad Vincula. The programme includes our usual eclectic mix of music, this year ranging from Luigini & Shostakovich through to Sinatra, Sousa, Gershwin, Bon Jovi and more. Hopefully this year’s programme won’t result in the thunder & lightning we were subjected to when we played The Stripper there last year!
As ever the band continues to welcome woodwind and brass players of all ages and abilities, so if you’re interested in joining, or know anyone who is, we’ll be very happy to see you at any of our Friday rehearsals. Everything you need to know about the band is on our website www.wbcb.org, or you can call or email Graham on 01206 824157 or [antibot mailto=”[email protected]”].