The “abridged” Highlights of the AGM
We held our Annual General meeting on the 6th of March, the following summary will be of interest to those who follow the band.
Youth Band Report
We have 37 instruments currently available for beginners and improvers. 33 belong to the band with 4 cornets supplied by Angley School. Over half of these are in use but there are plenty more available for new budding talent.
The beginners consist of 7 cornet, 5 horn, 4 trombones, 2 baritones, 1 euphonium and a bass. Karin has been of great help with the youth band and will be greatly missed (Switzerland is a bit far to come to rehearsals). The demands of homework, school bands and orchestras, which always seem to operate on Thursdays and the demands of busy parents have slowed progress slightly but even so progress is being made.
MDâs Summary
Ian started this years summary with âAn interesting year for us allâ. How right he was, there has been a lot going on these past months with, perhaps our biggest concert schedule for several years. The Tour to Belgium was a resounding success and many thanks were passed on to chairman David Newsom for his organisation of this event.
The year ended with a âsend-offâ of sorts for one of the bands long time serving players who is actually still playing with the band 4 months after his leaving concert !When he does eventually move away from the area Peter Evans will be greatly missed and the band showed their appreciation by putting on a concert in Staplehurst Church with special guest Trombone Soloist Steve Walkley who mesmerised the audience with some superb playing. As well as being a farewell concert for Peter we raised over ÂŁ1,700 pounds for charity.
Committee
There was the usual rush to take up positions on the committee and thanks were passed on to those members standing down in particular Dave Pettifer who has been band manager and arrived early at our concerts to setup the stage.
Concerts
This year we hope to put on more good performances throughout the concert season, although we will limit the number of times we are out all weekend during the summer to make it easier on players and deps. We used a number of players last year who stood in at very short notice and helped us cover holidays and sickness. It was also noted that the current cornet line-up needs bolstering to replace the 5 lost cornet players who have moved on to pastures new.
Recording
Finally, those of you looking the Cranbrook Town Band at the SCABA Spring contest this year will have to wait until the Autumn contest as the band will not be entering this years event. Instead we will be working hard making our new recording, details of which will be appearing on the web site soon. Rehearsals are well under way and we can promise you a varied and exciting performance.