Posted on Wednesday November 13th, 2019
As regular attendees of our concerts will know, we take our music-making pretty seriously at WCB, so when we heard that the brilliant Berkshire Maestros were running a crowdfunding campaign to introduce 300 babies and toddlers to music for FREE across Berkshire next January, we were only to happy to contribute. We've pledged our support, joining over 120 other backers, including Β£9k from Arts Council England and they've got just 19 days left to reach their target.
If you can spare them a couple of quid (or more!) and want to make it happen, they'd be absolutely delighted...and maybe you'll see some of the people they help on stage with WCB in about 20 year's time, thanks to your donations!
Posted on Sunday November 10th, 2019
Last Sunday, WCB was delighted to once again provide the musical accompaniment for the annual Service of Remembrance in Henley-on-Thames. As well as accompanying the service, the band played the Royal British Legion March to accompany the march-past and principal trumpet Gregor played the Last Post and Reveille to mark the national two minutes silence. As ever, it was a very moving occasion and WCB is proud to have been involved in this important event.
Posted on Friday November 8th, 2019
Right...after all that hard work for the NCBF, it's time to let our hair down a bit! We're proud of the fact that we're not just a high quality (did we mention AWARD-WINNING!) wind band, but we also manage to be pretty sociable. This immaculately-stacked pile of ex-pallets is all ready for our band fireworks and bonfire night tonight! We'll be taking in a local fireworks display, then discussing just what fine musicians the NCBF adjudicators are round a roaring bonfire! Anyone bring the marshmallows...?ππ₯π
Blaze Away! π Enjoy ππΆπΊπΌπ₯
Posted on Wednesday November 6th, 2019
After all the excitement of the weekend, we'll be adopting a more reflective tone for some of our rehearsal this evening as we prepare for Sunday's Remembrance Day Service at Henley on Thames. This is always a very moving occasion and we're proud to be asked to provide musical accompaniment for such an important event each year. If you'd like to join the service, it begins at 10:50am outside the Town Hall in the market place (please note that road closures start to come into effect from 10:15) and includes a march past by members of the armed forces and other local organisations.
Posted on Sunday November 3rd, 2019
Woohoo! We've had a fab time at the National Concert Band Festival today and thoroughly enjoyed performing our programme of pieces, all topped off by winning a PLATINUM award (the best a band can get...)! π We really enjoyed participating in the festival and we're absolutely delighted with the result - the icing on the cake for all our hard work over the last few weeks!
Now, if you'll excuse us, we're off for a little celebratory drink...
I feel very proud to be part of such a wonderful team - a great experience, and a great achievement for everybody - thank you, Claire!!
An amazing day. Woodley Concert Band...you rock!xx
Big shout out to my mate and fab alto sax player Sarah Parker. You did a fantastic job of that seriously awkward sax solo in Ride π π
Great day out and so worthwhile to do.
Congratulations all! X
Yaaaay! Congrats π₯³ x
Super proud of you all. Fantastic job. I look a bit scary on this photo!!! πΎπ³π
Fantastic achievement, well done all π
Amazing job guys. Well done all of you β€οΈβ€οΈ
Congratulations Woodley Concert Band πππ
Well done band! It was fun playing with you.
Holy cow! Congratulations π₯³ π₯³π₯³π₯³π₯³π₯³π₯³ that’s fantastic π₯³π₯³π₯³π₯³π₯³π₯³
Many many congratulations! Thoroughly well deserved
Great result everyone - many congratulations
Well done everyone π
Well done Becky Tisshaw and WCB ππΌπΊ
Well done. Been invited up north to the "finals"/national Festival?
Congratulations π π
Congratulations you guys!
Well done, sorry I missed it
Well done. Congratulations.
Well done &and Congratulations
Well done WCB. Sorry i missed it.
Posted on Sunday November 3rd, 2019
Today, we're off to make our debut at the National Concert Festival! Just time for a quick rehearsal first to ensure that we're at the very top of our game! Wish us luck! πΆπ·πΊπ΅
Good luck everyone - wish I could be there x
Good luck! - I'm sure you will do really well.
Break a Leg! Enjoy
Knock em dead! π₯°π₯°π₯°π₯°π₯°π₯°π₯°
Posted on Friday November 1st, 2019
Our final NCBF Festival UK piece is Nigel Hess' evocative Stephenson's Rocket. This concert overture recalls the early days of the railways and one of the most famous engines of all time, the Rocket. The work is a firm favourite with wind bands throughout the country and gives a clear and vivid description of the engine gathering steam and setting off. We played this piece as part of our recent concert and love it so much that we thought we'd give it another outing - look out for full band steam effects!
PS...bonus points for anyone that recognises where we've used this picture before...!
Posted on Thursday October 31st, 2019
With just four days to go until our first ever performance at the NCBF, last night was our final full rehearsal and we roped in wind band legend Rob Wiffin to put some finishing touches to our preparations. We had a great time being put through our paces by Rob who has previously adjudicated at the Festival and we're really looking forward to our performance on Sunday!
Don't forget that if you want to come and hear us, you have to book tickets in advance - get your tickets here:
www.trybooking.com/uk/book/event?eid=8739&
Posted on Wednesday October 30th, 2019
Our second piece for this year's NCBF Festival UK is Peter Meechan's reflective Song of Hope - an uplifting and melodic work dedicated to the composer's friend Ryan Anthony (principal trumpet with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra) and his charity, Cancer Blows β a foundation set up to raise awareness and money to further the research that has helped give their family a hope for a future following Ryanβs diagnosis of Multiple Myeloma. This beautiful work features a number of soloists from within the band and will bring a moment of calm to our programme.
Posted on Monday October 28th, 2019
1 week to go until our NCBF Festival UK debut and it's time to reveal the first piece in our programme! Samuel Hazo's Ride is a high-velocity frantic piece, inspired by a landscape-blurring car ride down a country road in Pennsylvania. We've been enjoying getting to grips with the fast-paced time signature changes and sudden switches in dynamics and are looking forward to this piece adding a dose of loud excitement to our programme!
Vroom Vroom. Sounds exciting. Enjoy πΆ
Nice choice!
Posted on Monday October 21st, 2019
NEWSFLASH! We're excited to announce that next month, we will be participating in the National Concert Band Festival for the first time! The NCBF Festival UK celebrates and promotes the music and activities of wind bands across the UK and provides a unique opportunity for us to perform with other similar bands and to receive constructive feedback on our playing from some of the most accomplished wind band experts in the country (apart from Claire, obviously - she's pretty expert but we get feedback from her *quite* often!).
Want to hear us play? The London Regional Festival takes place on Sunday 3rd November at the Royal Military School of Music at Keller Hall from 9:40am until 7:00pm with WCB performing at 4:55pm. Due to the secure nature of the location, tickets are ONLY available in advance and you'll need to allow time to get through security at the venue. You can get your tickets here: www.ncbf.info/festival-tickets/.
Coming to hear us? Let us know - we'd love to see you there!
Posted on Wednesday October 16th, 2019
Well, there's no rest for the wicked! Our Autumn Concert might be barely in the sidings but we're already got our eye on the rest of the year! Here's a quick picture of our music group who met last week to consider appropriately festive pieces for our fabulous Christmas concerts (on Sunday 15th December - box office opens on Saturday 16th November - more details soon!). As you can see, despite it only being October, they were feeling suitably Christmassy and found lots of music to ensure a truly magical musical Christmas for our audiences!
Now, anyone fancy a mince pie...?ππ
π
Yo ho ho π¦π¦π¦π· π§βοΈ π
Posted on Sunday October 13th, 2019
Well, that was wheely epic! Thanks to everyone who came along to our Autumn Concert last night - it was terr-afic (get it?)! We had a great time and hope that you did too. We'll have plenty of photos from our transport-themed adventure to share in the next week or so but in the meantime, here's a quick picture of Brother Nicely Nicely Johnson (aka Ray Higgs) trying (unsuccessfully) not to rock the boat!
If you came along, let us know what your favourite piece was - we'd love to hear! π
Classy playing from John S in Apollo 13!
Pirates!
Posted on Saturday October 12th, 2019
OK, we're ready to take you on an epic adventure of transport-related delight! Look out for this moment - it's one of our absolute favourites!! π
Gorgeous Fred! π€ͺπ₯
Posted on Saturday October 12th, 2019
How are you getting to our transport-themed concert today? We were considering bicycles but in the end we decided that a van would be more practical for the staging, 3 timpani, drum kit, concert bass drum, glockenspiel, xylophone, cymbals, extension lead, keyboard, various assorted stands and an audience worth of cheese biscuits and fizzy fruit juice!
As you can see, we're all unloaded now - time to get it all set up! See you later!
