5th Place at Weston Contest
Phoenix travelled up to Weston-Super-Mare yesterday to take part in their annual brass band competitiion. Competing in the second section, playing Philip Sparke's "Music For a Festival", we were awarded 5th place for our performance.
The Morning Prep
Sunday morning started with a panic after a phone call from our solo horn player's husband who informed us that Bev was unable to make the contest due to illness. We've had some close calls on contest weeks before but I cannot remember the last time we had someone pull out on the morning of the contest. After much debate and many phone calls, Dave Hatton decided that we would be better trying to re-work the parts amongst the remainder of the horn section, rather than relying on a newcomer to the band.
We met up at East Brent village hall at 12o'clock for our arranged morning warm up / rehearsal. After some quick scribbling of notes, we were ready to rehearse. A massive congratulations and thanks have to go out to Julie, Gordon and especially our first horn player, Lynda, who rose to the challenge and played the exposed horn solo in the slow quartet section of the piece. What could have been a disaster was quickly and calmly averted and we were now ready for the contest stage.
The Performance
Drawn #1 we had to wrap up our rehearsal early and get to the venue fairly rapidly. The new horn section aside, we had 2 new faces with us who were contesting with us for the 1st time. Julia Evans and Mark Bulgin, both on 3rd cornet, were eager and ready to get on the stage and show us all how good they could play their part.
Overall the performance on the stage was good. We started really well which settled the nerves. All the soloists performed their parts well with no obvious signs of nerves. Perhaps the final fast movement could have been tighter but overall the band played really well and considering the last minute panics of the morning, I thought we gave a very good performance of the piece.
Thoughts and Thanks
Firstly, we need to congratulate and thank our horn section of Julie, Lynda and Gordon for covering the solo horn parts and making sure that it did not "rock the band" by having such an important and exposed part missing. Secondly congratulations to Julia and Mark on 3rd cornet, both played superbly. Now you both know what contesting is about, fingers crossed that the next one will bring a better result.
Finally I would also like to thank a few players who came back to help us out, without whom we could not have made the contest:
- Steve Taylor - 1st Baritone
- Jim Packer - Percussion
- Jane Perrin - 2nd Trombone
Thanks to you all and fingers crossed that this will not be the last time that you will be playing with us.
Anyone wishing to read the adjudicators comments can do so here
Released On 23rd May 2011
