And the band played on...
Like everyone across the country the Coalburn Brass Band family have had to adjust to the changes that Covid-19 brought with it. Despite not being able to meet up for our weekly rehearsals this has not stopped our members from pulling together to keep the band running and keep making music.
The Bronze Band members have been issued with future concert pieces arranged by our conductors David Fehilly and Gareth Bowman. In order to help them learn their parts, a group of Silver Band members recorded the music which was compiled together for band members to play along with.
Our Silver Band conductor Gareth Bowman has been designing and leading online, ‘Guided Practice Sessions’ to support Silver and Intermediate band members with their home practice routines.
The Percussion Academy has also been meeting regularly online to continue lessons with their tutor Caitlin Monaghan. Caitlin will soon be leaving our organization as she is relocating to start a Masters course at The Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. We would like to take this opportunity to wish Caitlin the very best in her studies and thank her for all of her work with our percussion academy over the past 2 years – she is going to be greatly missed!
We have had a fantastic engagement and positive comments to our virtual recordings that our bands have produced. The Intermediate Band alongside Leadhills Silver Band produced a performance of ‘A Song for Health’ by Steven Verhelst. This was followed by the Silver Band’s recording of Alan Fernie’s arrangement of the Madness song, ‘Baggy Trousers’ a piece of music that the band is heard playing during our summer engagements..
Both recordings can be viewed on the our Facebook page. Our performance of Baggy Trousers has had over 16,000 views, thank you to all our supporters who liked and shared our video. A huge thank you to our conductors Gareth Bowman and David Fehilly who both spent countless hours working on these recordings and also thanks to our flugel player Calum Miller who worked on the Baggy Trousers video. Calum has also been busy coordinating Intermediate and Silver band player profiles that were added to our Facebook page in March and April.
We were so disappointed that Stonehouse, Blackwood and Kirkmuirhill, Douglas and Coalburn gala days as well as Lanimer Day in Lanark were cancelled this year and look forward to returning to these events next year. With funding from Foundation Scotland we are looking forward to playing 6 new arrangements of popular music at these summer engagements.
In addition to meeting online to continue our musical activities, we have also had a number of band quizzes for all of our bands and we have held an EGM, an AGM and committee meetings to continue the running of the bands. The band were delighted to received funding from South Lanarkshire Council’s Renewable Energy Fund to help compensate for some of our lost income during this pandemic.
Whilst we are enjoying being able to continue our rehearsals and meeting from a distance, we are greatly missing being able to meet and rehearse in person and not be able to perform in concerts or on the contest stage. Our next concerts will be Disney themed which all of the bands have music to start preparing at home. The Silver Band will also be participating in the West of Scotland Virtual band contest and members of both the Silver and Intermediate band members are going to be involved in the West of Scotland virtual band too. We are looking forward working on these virtual recordings.
The whole Coalburn Brass Band family extends our best wishes to all its supporters and fellow bands throughout the UK during this unprecedented time and thank all frontline workers for their efforts against Covid-19. We hope that we can resume rehearsals and perform for our audiences as soon as it is possible to do so.
The Bronze Band members have been issued with future concert pieces arranged by our conductors David Fehilly and Gareth Bowman. In order to help them learn their parts, a group of Silver Band members recorded the music which was compiled together for band members to play along with.
Our Silver Band conductor Gareth Bowman has been designing and leading online, ‘Guided Practice Sessions’ to support Silver and Intermediate band members with their home practice routines.
The Percussion Academy has also been meeting regularly online to continue lessons with their tutor Caitlin Monaghan. Caitlin will soon be leaving our organization as she is relocating to start a Masters course at The Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. We would like to take this opportunity to wish Caitlin the very best in her studies and thank her for all of her work with our percussion academy over the past 2 years – she is going to be greatly missed!
We have had a fantastic engagement and positive comments to our virtual recordings that our bands have produced. The Intermediate Band alongside Leadhills Silver Band produced a performance of ‘A Song for Health’ by Steven Verhelst. This was followed by the Silver Band’s recording of Alan Fernie’s arrangement of the Madness song, ‘Baggy Trousers’ a piece of music that the band is heard playing during our summer engagements..
Both recordings can be viewed on the our Facebook page. Our performance of Baggy Trousers has had over 16,000 views, thank you to all our supporters who liked and shared our video. A huge thank you to our conductors Gareth Bowman and David Fehilly who both spent countless hours working on these recordings and also thanks to our flugel player Calum Miller who worked on the Baggy Trousers video. Calum has also been busy coordinating Intermediate and Silver band player profiles that were added to our Facebook page in March and April.
We were so disappointed that Stonehouse, Blackwood and Kirkmuirhill, Douglas and Coalburn gala days as well as Lanimer Day in Lanark were cancelled this year and look forward to returning to these events next year. With funding from Foundation Scotland we are looking forward to playing 6 new arrangements of popular music at these summer engagements.
In addition to meeting online to continue our musical activities, we have also had a number of band quizzes for all of our bands and we have held an EGM, an AGM and committee meetings to continue the running of the bands. The band were delighted to received funding from South Lanarkshire Council’s Renewable Energy Fund to help compensate for some of our lost income during this pandemic.
Whilst we are enjoying being able to continue our rehearsals and meeting from a distance, we are greatly missing being able to meet and rehearse in person and not be able to perform in concerts or on the contest stage. Our next concerts will be Disney themed which all of the bands have music to start preparing at home. The Silver Band will also be participating in the West of Scotland Virtual band contest and members of both the Silver and Intermediate band members are going to be involved in the West of Scotland virtual band too. We are looking forward working on these virtual recordings.
The whole Coalburn Brass Band family extends our best wishes to all its supporters and fellow bands throughout the UK during this unprecedented time and thank all frontline workers for their efforts against Covid-19. We hope that we can resume rehearsals and perform for our audiences as soon as it is possible to do so.
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