Category: Christmas

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Christmas kicked off in style.

The weekend of the 9th and 10th of December saw the Senior Band kick off Christmas in real style. First of all a small group of players headed off to Bishopthorpe Club on December 9th to play carols at the annual Lollipop Christmas Party.

Lollipop is a charity supporting d/Deaf children and their parents and offers them a social environment where they can get together. The band have joined with the NCEM I Can Play programme over the last year to offer places in Brass Roots where d/Deaf children can take up playing a brass instrument. We are so excited to be part of this initiative and many members of the band have started learinig to sign using BSL as part of this. More on that Later!

December 10th saw the senior band head to the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall at the University of York where we put on three performances of The Snowman live. We were pleased to welcome Buffy Breakwell who accompanied us on the Grand Piano and Sophie Sylvester who provided stunning vocals in the iconic Walking in the Air. Thanks also have to go to York Concerts who partnered with us on both this and the recent Cory concerts and withouth whom we would have found this much harder to do.

We couldn’t just leave things there though and we added in a couple of extra pieces, the first was Into the Unknown from the film Frozen II and then we introduced something really new for the band. As we move into 2024, we are going to build on the work we have done with Lollipop and I can play and we are making our concerts more inclusive for our d/Deaf friends. The first step here is going to be the introduction of signing at our concerts. With this in mind our Principal Cornet player Sean Chandler, who is himself d/Deaf, taught the audience the BSL words for Merry Christmas Everyone having first explained the challenges faced in selecting the correct cutlery.

The feedback we have had was that the audience participation in this number was a real highlight for everyone who was there, and Sean has confessed he was quite choked up to see the players in the band not only getting involved in the signing themselves, but also giving a round of applause using signing at the end of the piece.

Sean teaching the signing for Merry Christmas Everyone

Thanks to Jenni Chandler for ther video clip.

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Christmas CD Wrapped Up

After spending a rather warm couple of days at All Saints School on Nunnery Lane, the senior band completed recording the music for our new Christmas CD which will be out in time for the Christmas Gala concerts in December.

Here are a few photos of what we got up to on the day. I’m sure you will agree the choreography from the percussion section is of the highest order!

Our thanks have to go out to Keith and George from Music House Productions for their work on setting up and recording, to Bronte Wilkinson, Kate Ironton, James Stockdale and of course Sharon “7 hours” Greenfield for filling in a few spaces we had.

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Christmas in June!

It is a few years since the Senior Band released their last Christmas CD and we are asked at every concert when the next one is coming out. We can answer that now and our new Christmas CD will be out in time for Christmas 2023. What that means for the band is that we need to record the music and this weekend saw us head down to All Saints RC School to lay down the tracks.

We welcomed Sharon Greenfield back for the recording, Sharon was our Flugelhorn player for many years and when we asked for a horn player to cover a seat, Sharon stepped in and made the 7 hour journey up from her home in Devon to help us out. That’s dedication!

Sharon Greenfield sharing a joke with Sean Chandler.

It does feel odd recording Christmas music while most of the band are sitting in shorts and T shirts, but some players really got into he spirit of the session and got out their Christmas shirts.

Karl Scarborough rocking the Christmas t-shirt

The first days recording went well and the work rate was extremely high.

The percussion crew figured out there was a time lapse running and set about choreographing their own little stop motion video. Such ingenuity!

Keep a look out for the details of the CD release date and also look out for the band’s earlier CD content being made available for streaming over a range of streaming platforms in the near future. In the meantime, here’s an outtake from the recording session and a short teaser of what’s coming up.

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Christmas Concert Success

Once again, all the bands came together over 2 nights to entertain packed audiences in the Joseph Rowntree Theatre. Both evenings were started off by Brass Roots who once again impressed everyone with their playing and showed the audience how well they are coming along as new players.

The Academy Band were next perform followed by the Youth Band. Both performances demonstrate that the future of the band is safe and that there is a wealth of musical talent coming along through our ranks.

Next up were the Concert Band, although Mike was not at the helm this time. Everyone will know Mike had a heart attack earlier this year and had to go up to Middlesborough for bypass surgery. He is now well on the road to recovery and we are assured his jokes will be be back and will be as bad as ever. One of the highlights of the Concert Band set had to be the superb solo played by Emerson Hampshire, they really did nail their version of Peter Grahams Away in A Manger.

The second half of the concert was over to the Senior Band and they provided an upbeat version of Christmas with a a funky big band take of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. Our new Principal Cornet, Sean Chandler, gave a brilliant rendition of Santa Claus is Coming to Town and the set was concluded with a finale recounting the story of the Christmas 1914 truce where Mike Pratt starred as the narrator, he really can’t stay away.

The finale saw all bands back on stage where we invoked the spirit of Christmas and Pantomime with “If I were not in Shepherds Band” arranged by the Concert Band Soprano Cornet player James McFadyen. I’m sure everyone who saw the finale will have loved the dancers who performed.

The Christmas concert is one of the highlights of the year and it was so good to have all bands back on stage together. We now look forward to 2023 and what it brings for us all. The band would like to wish all our friends and followers a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Backstage views of the Christmas Concerts
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Carolling and answering an appeal.

On December 21st, members of all our bands got together to play Christmas Carols for the residents of Amarna Care home in Macomb and Rowntree Lodge care home in New Earswick. This has become an annual event over the past few years and our players love giving something back to our local community. Of course, the mulled wine and mince pies are always make a welcome appearance.

This year we had another venue to add to our tour of York after we received an appeal to play for 99 year old Rowley from Heworth. Rowley has been a long standing fan of a Brass Band and of course we were happy to drop round on our way back to the band room. His neighbours were treated to an unexpected impromptu concert and came out to listen, his next door neighbour was very surprised on returning from her dog walk!

Merry Christmas everyone!

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Youth Band “Lights Up” Selby Abbey

Light Up A Life is an event our bands have been proud to be part of for many years in York. This year is no different and Sunday saw our Youth Band heading off to Selby Abbey where they performed to a packed audience in aid of St Leonards Hospice. This really is one of the most important performances of the year for the Youth Band and they were superb as they always are.

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A chilly success!

On December 10th, the Senior Band took on a new Christmas Challenge at St Andrews Church in Bishopthorpe when they performed the live soundtrack to a showing Raymond Briggs’ animated film “The Snowman”. This was a new experience for the band, playing film music is a very different performance to a concert performance and the build up to this has been quite intense.

The band was joined by Buffy Breakwell who played keyboards with us and Sophie Sylvester who provided the vocals for the iconic song “Walking in the Air”. Everyone in the band was really impressed with the professionalism and superb musical ability of both our guests for the day. We can only hope this will not be our last collaboration.

We could have sold the tickets for this ten times over so next year we will be back to do it all over again. Watch this space!

That wasn’t the only thing we did on the day though!

In the interval between performances, the band went along to Bishopthorpe Sports and Social Club to play Christmas Carols for the Lollipop children’s Christmas party. Lollipop is a charity for D/deaf children and their families in York and the band’s Principal Cornet player Sean Chandler is involved in making music with the children the charity works with.

When Sean asked if a few players could go, the whole band said yes. Playing “Away in a Manger” with a choir signing the words was such a powerful moment.

If you want to know more about Lollipop and want to support their work, check out their website.

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Concert Band sparkles at Knaresborogh Christmas Market

This was the first Xmas outing for the Concert Band but unfortunately without Mike Pratt conducting due to a medical problem. However our Soprano player, James McFadden, very ably took the stick at the front and did an excellent job leading the CB through 2 hours of festive music in front of a packed Market audience. The local temperature of 5 deg didn’t help greatly though.

The first half was predominantly carols with the audience being asked for their requests. Mass singing by our listeners was hugely appreciated and really set the tone for the second half after a welcome break for the players to get their breath back.

The second half was mainly Xmas music that has been in the charts and has proven very popular. This included Let It Snow, Rocking around the Christmas Tree, Last Christmas etc mixed with the odd carol or two. Jingle Bells, as always, proved very popular with our audience. 500 Miles was somehow worked into the programme, complete with audience antiphonal singing. Great! The final number was announced as a slow middle ages Christmas tune that needed to be played with due care and solemnity. That’s when the Band wholeheartedly launched into Mr Holder and Mr Lea’s Merry Christmas Everybody with wholehearted and lung busting effort. 

Gloves certainly helped with the weather!

A cold but great Christmas Concert. Organisers pleased. Audience pleased. A good collection. What could be better? Before we left we were asked to do the same job next year.

Many thanks to our senior band Baritone Player Jen for the photos.

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