Manic!

This is a busy time of year for any musician, but for brass players it does feel as though demand is particularly high. This last weekend I have had two performance and an additional rehearsal.

Saturday evening was one of the weirdest performances I have yet managed, in the same concert I managed to play Euphonium with the band, an EEb Tuba solo, told some jokes, and played "Dustbin Bass" dressed in a ball gown and donkey jacket! By way of justification perhaps I should point out that this was a concert themed around "Old Time Music Hall" and we were performing "My Old Man's a Dustman" ~ I trust the irony that I was the one who used to be a dustman was lost on the vast majority of people there!

While it may not have been the musically fulfilling concert I have played I am quite sure that everyone had a fabulous, fun filled evening ~ helped by three special arrangements I put together for them, a carrot clarinet, and some other equally weird and wonderful performances ~ all culminating with an abridged rendition of Tchaikovsky's 1812 with the audience providing the canon effects by bursting paper bags.

We can always rely on All Saints Concert Band providing an entertaining evening.

Sunday was a bit more sensible with Croydon Brass playing some carols and Christmas tunes at our new home at Stanley Halls ~ If everybody else enjoyed themselves as much as me then it was another very satisfactory evening.

I am now beginning to learn something of the physical strain of conducting, on Sunday morning I had my first regular rehearsal with the Allegra Concert Band as their new MD ~ before the evenings performance. By the end of the day my shoulder and right arm were feeling the strain, and I was certainly ready for a couple of pints!

If any more photos from the weekend surface I will be sharing them!