The Ups and Downs of contesting

Last weekend, Olney Brass Open band and Olney Brass Beginners (who joined forces with Towcester Studio Band Beginners), took part in the open group section at Milton Keynes Festival of the Arts for Dance, Speech and Music. Both groups played really well, received lovely feedback from the adjudicator and were commended with each of their peformances. The beginner group also received a special bronze award, in recognition of what they have achieved in less than 6 months of learning a brass instrument, at their debut to The Venue stage! Well done and thank you to every single member of each band who took part and our compatriots at Towcester Studio Band. You were amazing and we are so proud of you all! Thank you to all those involved in preparing the

children (and our adult players too) for this event, especially Bob, Sara , Phil and our talented and dedicated band leader David.

#thefutureisbrightthefutueeisolneybrass

#learntoplaybrass

#brassplayersofthefuture

#youthbrass

#communitybrass

The senior band took to the stage at Stevenage the same weekend, recently promoted, the result of the contest determines whether or not we could maintain a position as a worthy Second Section band. The table below shows all 18 bands competing, results are averaged over three years to determine where in the table the band lie. After a favourable performance with some genuinely positive comments we ended joint 13th and retain our Section 2 status. Competing against First Section bands who have recently been relegated ( R ) and bands with senior and more experienced players this was a good result. Particular praise goes to those competing with us for the first time at this level - Finn, Barney, Alex, Fonella and special thanks to Tom and Dusan who returned to help.

The Archive

Last month I mentioned that former cornet player Darren Umney had kindly offered to help digitise the band archive which many of you enjoyed looking through at the 50th Concert. This involves scanning each image and saving them ready to upload onto our website. It will be a permanent record of our activities since the formation of the band. Here are some images from the first folder with only another five folders to go!

Spring / Summer dates confirmed

Sat 26th April King’s Award ceremony for Redway Runners

Sat 3rd May Denton VE day celebrations 2.00pm

Sat 8th June Clifton Reynes Fete 1.00pm

Sun 15th June Ravenstone Fete

Tues 24th June Summer Showcase Newport Church 6.30pm

Sun 29th June Cherry fayre Olney 12.00pm

Happy New Year!

As we end the year we say a thank you and goodbye to three players who have each made significant contributions to the band over the past few years. Dusan (percussion) Finlay (cornet) and Tom (Euphonium) all leave us to concentrate on, or further their studies however it is great to note that all three will still be available to help during holidays and on special occasions. Unfortunately Finlay seems to have escaped the photographer on most occasions!

Where to see the band this Spring/Summer

The Band continues to be in demand over the summer months - you can expect to see us at various

events including:

Fayres at Clifton Reynes, Ravenstone, Emberton and Olney

The Roverfest at Weston Underwood

VE celebrations in Denton

and a performance on the bandstand at Leighton Buzzard

Dates and times will be confirmed in the next issue

Contest Season Beckons for All!

A busy term for our Beginner and Open Bands

Both bands are involved in 2 major events this term. On the afternoon of Saturday 15th March they will each be performing at the MK Festival of the Arts which will be held at The Venue in Milton Keynes. The Beginners Band will be playing 3 short pieces, ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb, ‘Hot Cross Buns’ and ‘When the Saints’, whilst the Open Band will be playing, ‘Beat It’ by Michael Jackson, ‘A Thousand Years’ from the Twilight Saga and ’Shake It Off’ by Taylor Swift. Do come along and support our young musicians if you can!

On Wednesday 2nd April at 4pm our young musicians are invited to play with MK Brass Hoppers at the annual Music for Youth event which is being held at the Christ the Cornerstone Church at Saxon Gate West. The music has yet to be finalised but it will be on a TV Theme! Again, it would be lovely to see support from you!

Olney Brass

The Annual trip to Stevenage for the Senior Band takes place in March, and again we compete in the Second Section to try and win an invitation to the Brass Band Finals in Cheltenham. Rehearsals and sectionals have begun in earnest as we try and make the best of this year’s test piece - ‘Friendly Takeover by Oliver Waespi. As always there’s lots to unpick as we navigate our way through the work. We hope to have a test run at the Oxford Contest in February.

“Friendly Takeover was composed for the 2016 Swiss Wind Band Convention in Montreux. In this three movement piece the composer experiments with lyrical motives combined with rhythmical pulses in different meters throughout the piece. In the finale, the musical scene is taken over completely by groove-based rhythms. This takeover, however, is of a friendly nature, as the various beats are not being conceived as rivals of the lyrical motives, but are rather supposed to infuse energy and vitality to the latter. Thus, one gets the impression of an ongoing acceleration throughout the piece.”

Digital Archive

Were you at our 50th? Did you enjoy browsing through the archive?

In what could turn out to be a huge undertaking former cornet player Darren Umney has offered

his services in trying to digitise these folders with the hope of it occupying a page on our website. Over the years I seem to have collected or saved anything in which the band was involved with. With the passing of David Greig and Alan Jenkin, more files, letters, brochures, programs and memorabilia has been passed to me. It would be a shame to let it stay in folders and not to be seen or read.

Do you have anything that you think should be included? Whilst we all have something, what would be great to see are more informal photos - Peel House or Tour photos Please email me if you have anything or Whatsapp a picture

Darren is pictured here (second left) with other members of the Stantonbury Brass back row cornet section at the 50th party. He has recently rediscovered his playing ability and plays Flugel Horn with Wolverton Town Band L to R with Darren are Nick Williams, Lindsay Greig Susan Harris and Debbie Hodder

Is it really nearly Christmas?

As I write this, on a bright sunny morning, we have just been subjected to Storm Bert, and played our first Christmas carolling gig at Turvey House for the Little Vintage Christmas Fayre. Mariah Carey has been let out of her box on radio 2 and Classic FM have sent me on the way this morning with King’s College Choir singing Deck the halls! It heralds the annual launch into our important money raising time of the year in order to keep the band afloat in 2025. It’s a packed schedule and sees us playing around the streets of Olney, outside super markets, nursing/care homes, Christmas Fayres and for the second year, at Red Bull in Milton Keynes. A full schedule is published here together with details of our annual concert in the Church. It is great that some duties can be shared with the Open Band who make a valuable contribution in their own right as well as helping out the senior band. Any readers wanting to join us, let us know, you can play, collect or just support in any way you can. Andy always has a set of bells that you can shake!

(Above)

The open band launch their Christmas Schedule by playing at the Tree Festival in Olney Church

First carolling gig of the season

for Olney Brass at

Turvey House

We continue to be proud and amazed at the dedication and commitment of David, Bob and Sara

who have moulded a new set of players into the Beginner Band. Olney Brass Beginners are doing fabulously well after only starting in October. They are now gearing up to perform at our annual Christmas concert on Saturday 14th December. David Rose has written a special piece called the Star that Shone, which includes narration, and will give them an opportunity to play with the Senior Band, and Open Band will be playing Stop the Cavalry as their joint piece with the Seniors. For more details and tickets follow this link: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/olney-brass Also, some Open Band members have recently graduated from Stage 2 of Learn to Play Brass, receiving the awards of Distinction and Distinction*. Congratulations to our four superstars!

#olneybrass

#olneybrassopenband

#youthbrass

#learntoplaybrass

Congratulations to our four superstars and the new recruits!

Not all gigs are public - and one of our favourites is being invited to play at Red Bull for their Christmas Market, some of you may recognise Clive Darnell in this photo as he continues to support and help the band having been an associate instructor in the early days of Stantonbury Brass. It was great to see him looking so happy to sit next to me!

The Band Christmas tree at this year’s festival challenged people to identify the Christmas Carols

being played by each instrument Here’s Finn’s entry, he knew the names (and numbers) in seconds… and wasn’t thrown by the odd pictures!

Trumpet: Silent night 70

Baritone: God rest ye merry gentleman 32

Euphonium: Jingle bells 100

Trombone: Away in a manger 12

Tuba: Good king Wenceslas 34

Finn plays cornet in Open Band and has played at many of the Senior Band sessions too!

Well Done!