The Band at West Wickham United Reform Church 13th March 2009

 

Guest Conductor and compere Dr Stephen Cobb



Cornet Soloist Carl Nielsen



Vocalist Anthony Harris

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL VISIT TO EMMANUEL UNITED REFORM CHURCH

WEST WICKHAM

A concert of classical favourites, with Guest Conductor Dr Stephen Cobb and Guest Soloists Anthony Harris (vocal) and Carl Nielsen (cornet)

It was a great experience to see this wonderful church absolutely full (the rear congregational extension, too), with the band yet again enjoying the buildingÂ’s remarkable acoustics, afforded by its fine timbered roof.

Friday 13th was Comic Relief night on the BBC, and Major George Whittingham brought introductory humour to the fore by comparing himself to a football manager who’d “got the chop” for a new manager from the very top of the Premier League of banding –Dr Stephen Cobb, Musical Director of the International Staff Band. Dr. Cobb immediately accepted this “transfer of the crown”, by commandingly bringing the baton down on Meyerbeer’s Coronation March. The band responded with confidence, and continued to relish being kept on its toes, as it responded to Stephen Cobb’s sensitive steerage through “Army” arrangements from the works of Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Wagner, Schubert, Grieg and Mascagni.

Dr Cobb shared insights on the challenge for brass bands of playing music written for the wider range of instruments in orchestras, endorsed the importance of brass banding in the Salvation ArmyÂ’s mission,  and described encouraging developments in the ArmyÂ’s music ministry with youth. He spoke too of how he had been captivated at the age of 10, by hearing the record of the Staff Band playing GriegÂ’s “Last Spring”, and how it was the springboard for his commitment to Salvation Army banding and to the Salvation Army itself.

We were favoured yet again by brilliant guest soloists. Anthony Harris, tenor, joined us for the third year running, delighting us with three German lieder in the first half of the programme, and later singing three popular songs including “If I loved you” from Carousel and “Kashmari Song”.

Dr Cobb told us that Anthony was the first male treble singer in the ArmyÂ’s Territorial Youth Choir, and is now well into his Bachelor of Music studies at the Guildhall.

Staff Bandsman Carl Nielsen skilfully played the 2^nd and 3^rd movements from HaydnÂ’s Trumpet Concerto, originally written in 1796 for the trumpet specialist who first developed the valved trumpet, and we certainly enjoy a trumpet/cornet specialist this evening!

The evening’s financial appeal which raised £550.00 was donated to Nash College, in nearby Hayes, a further education college for around 60 young people with severe, profound and multiple learning difficulties. Brenda, a governor from Nash College , with Perry, a student of the College, introduced us to the work of the College and its wider organisation “Livability” (the new name for the now merged Shaftesbury Society and for John Grooms’ Housing, which have worked among the UK ’s most marginalised people for over 160 years).

The Minister, Revd. Bill Bowman, told us we were playing better than ever, and extended an invitation to pay our 16^th visit next year. What a splendid link of fellowship with Emmanuel Church has been forged over the years.

Phil Edwards

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Engagements have been carried out at the following venues over the years and we are continuing with these on a regular basis:-