Hitting the High Notes
Congratulations to Bert who has passed his grade 6 trumpet with a merit. We are always so pleased to see the younger players in the Band making such amazing progress. It is also a huge congratulations to Ben who as well as achieving his music diploma earlier in the year is now going to study music at university level in Leeds. We will really miss Ben but wish him every success in his future studies.
We had a great time at Chudleigh raising £508 for Rowcroft Hospice. Here’s a short video with a few snippets of the music we played.
After a successful concert at Central Church which raised over £540 for Church funds, we are heading to Chudleigh this week for a concert arranged by our percussionist Roger in aid of Rowcroft Hospice. See the poster below for details.
Congratulations to Tony Stevens, our soprano cornet player and treasurer, who ran in the London Marathon this year. Tony raised £3500 for the British Heart Foundation in memory of his late colleague Darren. Well done Tony a fantastic amount and a fantastic achievement!
Our anniversary year has marked the end of an era. When the Devon and Cornwall Police Band disbanded, Mike Griffiths stepped forward to take on directorship of the new Band which was formed to carry on the good work of the Police Band. Mike has conducted (and organised the concerts) for 20 years now and last year decided that 2025 would be his last year. At the anniversary concert, he handed the baton onto Hannah his daughter. A presentation was made to Mike by the Band Chairman and the youngest member of the Band presented Hannah with a wonderful bouquet. Mike is looking forward to joining the front row cornets and doing some playing.
The 26th April saw the Band at St Mary the Virgin Church in St Marychurch for their 20th Anniversary Concert. We had a great audience to help us celebrate in style with a programme of the Band’s favourite pieces over the years. We opened with Fanfare and Flourishes by James Curnow based on Charpentier’s Te Deum and went on to perform a great variety of music from the film music of Hans Zimmer to the classical sounds of Shostakovich. Our marches were wide and diverse taking in the tradition of Punchinello, the virtuosity of Wilfred Heaton’s Praise and the slight comedy of Clochmerle. The Band had a great time and we think our audience did too.
Thank you for your support over the past 20 years. The Band are delighted to have raised over £70,000 for various charities. If you enjoy our Band and would like to support us in raising more money for charity over the next 20 years, please email us so we can add you to our Friends of the Band list. There’s no money involved, we just let you know our news and details of our upcoming concerts.
A big thank you to the team at the Church under the inspired leadership of Fr Nick Debney. It was wonderful to play in this beautiful Church. A massive thank you to Zoe and her team for the refreshments and raffle and finally, a huge thank you to Gary (who seems to have become our official photographer) for the wonderful photographs of the event.
On this special 20th anniversary year, one of the founder members of the Band was chosen as our band person of the year. Geoff Edis is not only a great musician but also drives the trailer with all our equipment, leads the alternate Wednesday group for the less experienced players and, is the Band secretary. He always has a joke or two and the Chairman was pleased to present him with the Malcolm Nellist cup.
Please come and support us at our anniversary concert at St Mary the Virgin Church in Torquay.
We had a great concert last Wednesday for our Films and Musicals Concert. We raised over £800 for the British Heart Foundation which will be added to Tony’s (our treasurer and star soprano player) Marathon fund raising. That means that the Band have raised over £71,000 for charities since it’s formation in 2005.