Contest Preparations Underway

With the tinsel and carol books packed away for another year, the band has been busy back in the bandroom. March might not seem that close at the moment, but for us, knowing that it’s only 7 weeks until the Areas contest is actually rather scary! With so many hours of rehearsal going into preparing for a contest, it’s always a relief when the test piece is one we can enjoy playing - and luckily Percy Fletcher’s ‘Labour and Love’ falls into that category.

The band is looking forward to welcoming back renowned bass soloist, conductor and arranger Steve Sykes, who will be taking us for two rehearsals leading up to the contest - the 9th and 23rd of February. The couple of rehearsals that Steve took us for prior to the 2009 Areas not only taught the band a great deal, but were also thoroughly enjoyable. The venue is yet to be confirmed, but anyone interested in coming along to listen to these practices would be very welcome to do so.

In addition to practicing for the contest, the band has been kept entertained by taking it in turns to select a piece of music at random from the library to play. So far, it’s been fairly easy to see why some pieces have been left to gather a thick layer of dust over the years, but we’re bound to uncover some forgotten about classics at some point. In the mean time, Hilary is going to continue to do her best to convince everyone to choose a piece from the ‘Selections’ section of the library, in the hope that Calamity Jane will make that long overdue appearance...