Well, we’ve reached the end of another year at Edinburgh Concert Band- and what a busy year it’s been. ECB has given four performances this year. Our Christmas concert at Greyfriars was a success and very festive! March saw the return of our hugely popular Kids concert, raising £250 for […]
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It was way back in June that Edinburgh Concert Band gave the world premiere performance of “Step Up”, a piece composed by Gaynor Barradell as part of Making Music’s Adopt a Composer scheme. A couple of days after that performance, BBC3 radio 3 came to record the piece at one […]
I can’t believe it’s all over. What a year! What a journey! With bleary eyes, I go to work with tunes and riffs of last week and related events swimming round my head. I am exhausted but what a fantastic reason to be exhausted. There’s not enough words to describe […]
‘Fish and chips, fish and chips and some lemonade, we’ll have some mushy peas now’… Gaynor gave us this phrase to help us get a tricky rhythm right. It worked, and I had the words and accompanying tune stuck in my head on loop for weeks. This piece has really […]
Ahead of Edinburgh Concert Band’s world premiere of our Adopt a Composer piece at our Summer Sparkler Concert on 16th June, Petra and Holly (1st Bb clarinets in the band) met the composer, Gaynor Barradell, to find out a little more about her and the piece she composed for the […]
” I never thought I’d be swinging washing machine tubing above my head when I volunteered for percussion!” “We need a volunteer for percussion — anyone up for stepping up for Gaynor’s ‘Step Up!’……?” I jumped at the chance, there is a surplus of clarinets and I have always wanted […]
Another rehearsal devoted entirely to Step Up with our adopted composer Gaynor & her Making Music mentor both present. Having been given the completed score a month ago with “note bashing” rehearsals in between, tonight was a real opportunity to start polishing the piece under the watchful ear of the composer. When […]
What a brilliant afternoon of music making! Gaynor Barradell handed out parts for our first draft of the music, eagerly awaited by myself and the band. She had worked extremely hard since her last visit to have the first draft ready in time for a full Sunday afternoon of workshops. […]
Tuesday’s rehearsal was fantastic with Gaynor there to give us the first really full impression of the shape and style of the work in progress. Really good to have a whole rehearsal to devote to this. Gaynor provided a worksheet with the main themes so even if we don’t actually play them […]
Last rehearsal we were finally given the chance to see an early draft of the exciting, original composition Gaynor has been working on especially for ECB. The band seemed to be holding it’s breath as the music was handed out. I wasn’t able to make it to the workshop in […]