EVENTS ON HORIZON
IF all goes according to plan the following brass band events will be taking place later in the year.
The Bolsover International Brass Band Summer School runs from Sunday, July 25 to Friday, July 30.
The National Brass
Band Finals for lower section bands is due to take place at the Centaur sive School and so is very much looking forward to going back and passing on his skills and expertise.
Arrangements are still underway for this and will be updated once the finer detail have been agreed.
To commemorate their special anniversary, the band has commissioned Philip Harper to compose a fiveto-six-minute piece based
Auditorium, Cheltenham Racecourse on Saturday and Sunday, September 18 and 19.
The Championship Section finals at the Royal Albert Hall are due to take place on on October 2.
Finally, the Wychavon Brass Band Festival is set to take place at the De Montfort School, Evesham on October 30. on the sculpture The Guardian of the Valleys. The Guardian is a 20-metre tall statue standing proud on the former site of the Six Bells Colliery, ov e rook ing Parc Areal Griffin and commemorates the lives lost following the explosion on June 28 in 1960 and is also dedicated to all mining communities wherever they may be.
The first performance of this work will be at the Celebration Concert on Saturday, November 13 and will be performed by the current Abertillery Town Band.
The band is also hoping to hold activities and workshops in schools leading up to the weekend based on the history of The
Guardian and hope this work will be on display before the concert.
There will also be a Celebration Dinner on the evening of Saturday, November 13 with past and present players, conductors, invited guests and speakers from the local and brass band community.
The weekend of celebrations will be concluded with the Abertillery Band playing at the Annual Remembrance Parade at the Llanhilleth Institute Cenotaph on Sunday, November 14.
Everyone connected with the Abertillery Town Band is delighted and excited with the planning and preparation stages during the last six months and all are working hard to secure funding for the various areas of the Projects.
You can support the the band by visiting their Crowdfunding site at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/ abertillery- town- band50th-anniversary where they raise money to help fund the band’s activities.
If you are a past member or conductor of the Abertillery Town Band and have not yet received an invitation to join the celebration events contact the band chair, Nigel Bard via email at: nigelbardnov @gmail.com.
Abertillery had a very successful Zoom Band session on Wednesday, February 10, when Brass Bands Wales chair Andrew Jones joined the meeting to give everyone an insight into the work and visionof the newly formed organisation.
It was an excellent presentation and the band chair, Nigel Bard, said: “It was great to see that the brass band scene in Wales now has a voice and that we can share good practice between bands with a view to keep the band scene vibrant and relevant.”
The band, in its 50th Anniversary, look forward to a further Zoom session with Philip Harper, musical director of Cory Band, on March 10.
(Thanks to Alun F Williams musical director
Abertillery Town Band)