SUMMER ENGAGEMENTS UNDERWAY

Redway Runners King’s Award Ceremony at the Open University

We were delighted to be asked to provide musical entertainment for the Redway Runners at their recent awards ceremony. Olney Brass Band entertained guests, who included many Redway Runner volunteers, Pippa Kirkbride (The High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire), Chris Curtis (MP for Milton Keynes North), Paul Day (Mayor of Newport Pagnell) and other esteemed dignitaries. Redway Runners was created in January 2011 and is completely run by volunteers. It caters for all running abilities, especially beginners.

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It provided the band with an opportunity to welcome guests as they arrived with music

provided by our newly formed ensemble. Followed by a full program of music to entertain guests during their reception after the presentation. Click here to see more photos and videos.

VE Day Celebrations at Denton

One of our first commitments of the summer was an invitation to play at the Denton VE day celebrations. From beautiful sunshine and shirt and tie, to dull, windy weather and a change into our fleeces nothing deterred either the band or the audience from enjoying our musical offering.

At a loose end on Fridays?

Towcester Studio Band launched their Friday morning Daytime band recently - it is an informal gathering of past players, ex-players, retirees and anyone who enjoys brass playing but is unable to commit to full time banding. Pieces range form the ‘sublime to the ridiculous’ from the serious to entertaining, from modern to nostalgic. More of a play through than a rehearsal it’s a thoroughly enjoyable way of passing a couple of hours. Led by Dave Howard, an experienced Bass player, I was recently asked to take a rehearsal in his absence and took along Philip Sparke’s The Prizewinners and Eric Ball’s Petite Suite de Ballet - music I hadn’t played in a long time! Please let me know if you are interested, just come as a one off or more regularly it’s up to you, you can also choose which part or even which instrument you play!

As the summer approaches we would like to draw your attention in particular to our Summer Showcase to be held once again in St Peter and St Paul Newport Pagnell.

It’s the one time of the year you can get to hear all three of the Olney Brass Family of Bands in one music filled evening. Enjoy refreshments and participate in our fund raising raffle

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