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Newark & Sherwood Concert Band, a shining jewel in Newark's performing arts crown since 1997, is in search of a new home following the closure of Kelham Hall & Country Park.
The organisation, made up of a main Concert Band and also a Development Band, comprises over 90 musicians and has rehearsed in The Dome of Kelham Hall since 2015. It would seem the Kelham Hall & Country Park is one of many sites that have suffered because of the Coronavirus pandemic. Newark & Sherwood Concert Band has performed regularly both locally and nationally, including representing Newark at the National Concert Band Festival in Manchester, on numerous occasions. In 2019, with the help of Newark Twinning Association, it made its first trip abroad to Newark's twin town of Emmendingen in southern Germany. The loss of a rehearsal room poses a real threat to the band's survival after the Coronavirus restrictions are lifted. Honorary President of the Band Rita Crowe said, “the Concert Band is part of Newark. It is a regular at the Palace Theatre and in the summer castle concert series. I will be doing everything I can to help find somewhere new to rehearse”. Band Chairman, Richard Williams said, “It is very sad that Kelham Hall has closed and the impact on the band and so many others is going to be felt far and wide. The band provides opportunities for musicians of all ages and abilities and it is essential we find a new home quickly”. Musical Director, Colum J. O'Shea said, “The Band room is the beating heart of any music making organisation and to need a new home always causes huge uncertainty. We are tremendously grateful to Kelham Hall & Country Park for their support over the past years and hope we can find a new home as soon as possible". The band would welcome hearing from anyone who would be interested in helping re-house both bands for Tuesday evening rehearsals, provide storage for the band's equipment and for any opportunities to perform in the area once the Coronavirus Pandemic subsides.
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More than fifty members of the Newark & Sherwood Concert Band held their ‘Heroes & Villains’ concert on Saturday, 22 September at Newark’s Palace Theatre under their superb Musical Director, Colum J O’Shea.
The evening featured a fabulous and varied programme of music and entertainment from The Blues Brothers, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Beatles, The Imperial March through to The Greatest Showman and Doctor Who. The highlight was undoubtedly the moving performance of ‘In Flanders Field’ which left the audience in silence. This piece of music was composed by Gavin Somerset especially for wind bands to commemorate the end of World War One 100 years ago. At the start of 2018 the band adopted Newark Mind as its charity for the year and announced it will be able to present a sizeable cheque from the money raised to date through the various concerts performed during the year. The band is now seeking a new charity with which to work 2019. Musical Director Colum O’Shea yet again provided a wonderful evening of musical entertainment and fun with his interaction with the audience. A great evening was had by all, including musicians and audience. PLAYERS' PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2017:
Second places jointly to: Shelby Sutton & Becky Lambert First place to: Charlotte Luxton CONDUCTOR'S AWARDS 2017: PLAYER OF THE YEAR - Alex Daubney - tuned MOST IMPROVED PLAYER - Sarah MacNish - clarinet BEST SECTION - Trombones (Hannah Bond, Paul Waters, Rebekah Emery) First Place Players were awarded a certificate and crystal glass. Well done and well deserved - thank you for your contribution to the band!!  On Sunday, 26 November 2017, the band attended the National Concert Band Regional Festival for the East Midlands held at Nottingham High School. This was the first time that the band had entered anything like this in its 20-year history. Since its beginnings over 30 years ago, the National Concert Band Festival has developed and grown in size and prestige and is recognised as the largest, most active, enterprising Festival for wind instrument musicians who play in wind bands or big bands throughout the UK. The bands play music from annually updated repertoire lists chosen to reflect the great wind music written by composers of the past, as well as the increasing large amount of music being written for wind instruments by highly skilled and successful living composers. Performances are assessed at regional events throughout the country by experts who award Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze awards. The highest awards also carry an invitation to take part in the National Festival – two days of non-stop music making, which in recent years has been held at The Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow and The Sage Gateshead. The band performed Paul Lovatt Cooper's "Where Eagles Sing", followed by "Hallelujah", "Beauty And The Beast" and "Toccata in D Minor". Alex Daubney was our soloist in Toccata and he was amazing. Special recognition has to go too to Shelby Sutton for her part in "Where Eagles Sing" which has what can accurately be described as a "really nasty" euphonium part! We are delighted to report that Newark and Sherwood Concert Band was awarded a Gold Award which we think is excellent for our first entry. Onwards and upwards now and we are sure we'll be there again in 2018! 
Another wonderful evening at the Palace Theatre, performing a Proms Concert for the Newark Twinning Association. This is the second time we've been asked to play for them and we have already been re-booked for 2018. There were 52 band members on the stage; the theatre was full and the atmosphere amazing - hundreds of balloons floating from the balcony and a barrage of glitter canon!! We started with The Liberty March and then went into Phantom of the Opera, after which followed a very diverse programme, including a fabulous rendition of Minnie the Moocher with MD Colum singing the vocals and getting the nearly 600 strong audience joining in with gusto. You can hear his performance here. The second half saw the band members in fancy dress, many of which were hilarious and added to the general party atmosphere of the night's concert. Of course there was the rousing Proms finale of Sea Songs Shanty, Jerusalem and Pomp & Circumstance. Just a very good night. You can hear see photographs here. WE'RE IN THE NEWARK ADVERTISER (AGAIN!)We're in the 20 October 2016 Edition of The Newark Advertiser!   We’ve not written a blog for a while so thought it was about time.
Well what a busy time we’ve been having. Numerous concerts, new members and now a charity. NSCB continues to go from strength to strength. Following the huge success of Newark Twinning Association’s Last Night of the Proms in February, we’ve performed no less than seven further concerts through the summer with another six lined up between now and the end of the year. We’ve played again at Collingham May Fair (in the rain) and Upton Fete (in the rain) but despite the weather these were great successes. We then celebrated HM The Queen’s 90th birthday at Newark’s Masonic Hall raising funds for both the band and the hall and in Newark Market Place (in the rain – there’s a common theme here!). We have to say though that the highlight of the summer was the Brass Explosion in Newark’s Castle Grounds at the end of August. What a fantastic celebration of live local band music at which we were thrilled to perform for the firework finale. The audience was fantastic and the timing of “1812 Overture” as the fireworks exploded could not have been better. There was a great article in the Newark Advertiser. Moving on to the autumn, we’re looking forward to our main event of the year at The Palace Theatre, Newark on 4 November. This year’s concert is entitled “Tributes” and will be a musical celebration of some of the things that have happened in 2016 and some of the people who have left us. It’s promising to be a wonderful evening and tickets are selling fast. Before we know it though, it will be Christmas (!) and we have concerts in Farndon, Collingham, Kelham and Southwell this year to keep us busy. More details are always available on our website. Turning to people, it’s also been a busy year and we have been delighted to welcome new faces and say fond farewells to some of our members who have left. Goodbyes include George Topham (kit) who has gone off to university, Georgia Lewis (clarinet) who has moved to Leicester to start a new teaching job, Laura Swales (oboe) who has returned to her home in Bristol and Steve Whitehouse (bass trombone). Warm welcomes include Andy Wheeldon (cornet), Natalie Stanton (trumpet), Andrew Bevan (trumpet), Andy Terry (trumpet), Pete White (tenor sax), Tony Wheat (oboe), Reuben Wheeldon (tenor sax), Paul Waters (trombone), Ronnie Warner (tuba), Chris Leighton (kit). Good luck and welcome! 2017 is not here yet but will be the band’s 20th Anniversary season and one which we fully intend to make memorable. We have some great plans and will have some great events to celebrate. Watch this space for more information!
  Another large and enthusiastic audience was still on its feet cheering and asking for more at the end of Newark and Sherwood Concert Band’s performance at The Palace Theatre on Friday evening (6 November 2015). Their concert was once again a resounding success as musical director Colum O’Shea led the band through the years of musical theatre and film music with something to suit everybody’s taste.
The concert opened with a rousing rendition of the theme music from Star Wars - Phantom Menace before moving on to the gentler melodies of Gilbert & Sullivan’s operettas and Rogers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma. The audience was then brought more up to dates with treats from shows such as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Les Miserables and Wicked. Colum did not let the audience down and once again kept everyone entertained in between pieces with jokes and monologues which added to an already wonderful atmosphere that was appreciated by audience and band members alike. The concert finished with a real bang as band members supported by James Williams (10) fired cannon at the end of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. James is the band’s official “roadie” and has supported the band at every concert since his father Richard (bassoon) and sister Victoria (flute) joined 18 months ago. The band has continued to go from strength to strength in the last year and there are now over 40 talented musicians including a number of children who attend weekly rehearsals at Kelham Hall. Part of the band’s ethos is to nurture and develop young talent and it is always on the lookout for new players. More information can be found on the band’s website www.newarkandsherwoodconcertband.co.uk. Great article in this week's Newark Advertiser about Newark & Sherwood Concert Band's big concert on Friday 6 November at Newark's Palace Theatre. Tickets are available from the Palace Theatre box office or via the Palace Theatre's website HERE. Tickets are £11 or £10 concessions (plus booking fee).  Newark and Sherwood Concert Band has over 40 members and the age range is from 8 to 80 (something). This week we celebrate the birthdays of three of our younger members, Amelie, Amy and George. Happy birthday to you all!
We have a number of young people in the band all of whom play exceptionally well and are outstanding ambassadors of youth music. The youngsters are the future of many organisations, including NSCB, and we should be very proud to have them in our numbers! On Saturday 26 September, Caroline arranged for Richard and Victoria to be interviewed by Ady Crampton on Radio Newark. Click on the link below to hear what he had to say! 
Excellent rehearsal last night and welcome back to Max on French horn and to our new clarinetist Sarah. Brilliant to have Super Steve back - 41 of us there last night!
Only eight rehearsals before the Palace Theatre concert on 8 November - all welcome and tickets are available from the Palace Theatre box office. More info on our events page. The other splendid news is that we have been asked to perform the Last Night of the Proms at the Palace Theatre in February - Saturday 27th. The second half we will be in fancy dress........ Finally. I now have the new music for our Gilbert & Sullivan so will bring it with me next week. Caroline  The fantastic Alan Walker It's hard to believe that at 1pm as we were thinking of going to Newark Castle to set up for this afternoon's concert it was raining heavily! Only half an hour later the sun was shining and that's what it continued to do for the remainder of the afternoon. Today's concert was the last of a number in only a short space of time and in my view, it was one of the best that we have done. The audience certainly appreciated it and there were lots of people there to hear us including not only some familiar faces but many new ones too. The programme was one that included a number of NSCB favourites including General Mitchell March and Highlights from Frozen. The audience were clapping and cheering before we had even finished more than once. This afternoon was a resounding success. Alan Walker did us proud with his rendition of Yesterday and others played their part too. The band's "deputy deputy musical director" also did his turn and Colum proved that he could dance. It was fantastic. That's it for the summer now and we'll spend the next few weeks rehearsing for our next outing which will be at Newark's Palace Theatre on 6 November. Click here for details.  |
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