Nottingham Band Raises £1500 For Charity

14 March 2008

Thanks to the support of an enthusiastic audience, special guests and corporate sponsors, over £1500 was raised for Nottingham"s Cardiac Support Group at the Spring Concert staged by Nottingham Concert Band (Robert Parker).

The Sheriff of Nottingham, Councillor Jeannie Packer, and BBC East Midlands Today presenter Jo Healey were both in the audience at the Christian Centre on Talbot Street in the heart of the city when the band of 55 musicians presented a concert covering a diversity of styles. The guest compère was John Holmes of BBC Radio Nottingham.

All proceeds from the concert were donated to Nottingham"s Cardiac Support Group, whose Chairman David Turner accepted two cheques, one presented by Jo Healey on behalf of the sponsors and the second presented by Councillor Packer on behalf of the audience.

The evening’s programme opened with a performance of The Dam Busters March, which contrasted delightfully with Paul Reade’s Victorian Kitchen Garden Suite, where the band’s principal clarinet Sue Cornish was the featured soloist. A selection from Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats was followed by Colonel Bogey, and the first half closed with Gallimaufry, Guy Woolfenden’s five-movement piece for symphonic wind ensemble.

For the second half, Nottingham Concert Band opened with Vaughan Williams’ medley of Sea Songs, which was followed by another solo turn. This time the spotlight fell on principal trumpet Barry Garner playing Faure"s Pie Jesu, on a vintage straight trumpet which stretched out over the heads of the saxophone section seated in front of him. Then came outstanding performances of Wood’s arrangement of the Welsh folk song Sospan Fach, Rimmer’s march Punchinello and Graham’s Swedish Folk Song. The programme came to a close with Don’t Rain on My Parade, taken from the 1964 musical Funny Girl.