On 10th November, Regent Community Brass hosted an evening of musical entertainment at the Church of the Ascension alongside trumpeter John Campbell, pianist Graeme Thewlis and soprano Tracy King. The evening proved to be quite a success with a very receptive audience in attendance to listen to a diverse programme of music which ranged from the music of local composer Esther Hopkins to Giacomo Puccini and even John Lennon and Paul MacCartney!
The concert opened with the community band in full flow with the exciting “Florentiner March”, guest conducted by Richard Ferraro. The band’s solo horn Ryan Howells was then featured in a beautiful arrangement of “Over the Rainbow” before a lively performance of Alan Fernie’s interesting take on “Ticket to Ride”. Graeme Thewlis then performed two very atmospheric piano pieces in “Mysterious Light” and “Angelorum” before being joined by John Campbell in “Dwelling Places: Kings Quoit” and the “Concerto for Trumpet” by Harry James. To close the first half, Alan Duguid led the band through “The Shadow of Your Smile” featuring the band’s flugel horn player Lisa Neale and the “Light Cavalry Overture”.
The second half opened up with Philip Sparke’s “Jubilee Overture” before moving into Adrian Drover’s jazz-inspired arrangement of “Norwegian Wood” and a brisk performance of the classic “Bugler’s Holiday”, which featured the cornet trio of Francis Riebrand, Margaret Elliotte-Czentnar and Michael Hurford. Tracy King then wowed the audience with beautiful performances of “Rusalka’s Song to the Moon”, “Vissi D’Arte” and “I Could Have Danced all Night” before the band were joined by John Campbell, this time on cornet, to perform the classic solo “Share my Yoke”. After some very kind words from the vicar, the band rounded off the evening with “MacArthur Park” and an encore of “Toccata in D Minor”.
The band would like to thank the musicians who helped them at this concert and look forward to returning to the Church of the Ascension with Regent Brass to perform a Christmas concert on 7th December.
