2022 Jubilee concert celebrating everything British

What a night of celebrating everything we love about Britain at our 2022 Jubilee concert! And what a venue at The Verwood Hub in Verwood. 

Band members rehearsing on stage at The Verwood Hub

On Saturday 23 April at 3pm some of us arrived to set up ready for a final rehearsal before the concert. After practising some key passages we had some down time and enjoyed pizzas cooked by the Hub’s cafe. At 7pm we all started gathering ready to tune, and before we knew it, it was 7:30pm and the concert was underway.

First half of our Jubilee concert

Any gamers out there will be familiar with the first piece in our programme. We kicked off the show with the powerful theme tune from Civilisation VI called Sogno di Volare – also known as The Dream of Flight. Composed by Christopher Tin and arranged by Conaway, this piece featured driving rhythms in the woodwind and a heroic fanfare of entries from the brass. I love this piece and there’s a passage about two thirds of the way through that gives me goosebumps every time! I think it’s because all the instruments are building towards the ending and it’s really enjoyable to play.

Next up was a medley of Broadway musicals written by Goff Richards, arranged by Woodfield, in a fun piece called Breezin’ Down Broadway. It features lots of recognisable tunes like There’s No Business Like Show Business and Another Opening, Another Show.

Duets and solos

Then we changed pace with a calming duet by Sue on clarinet and myself on flute. We played Flower Duet from the opera Lakme, by Leo Delibes, arranged by McDermott. It’s a really pretty tune and you’ll recognise it from TV adverts and shows.

Sue and I playing Flower Duet in the first half. Photo courtesy of Alex Bostock.

Back to a faster pace, next up was Ollie who played the band’s first ever xylophone solo. He played Joyful Skeleton with the band accompanying in the background and it was very impressive – and fast!

We played a couple more pieces and finished the first half with hits from the famous Les Miserables. Written by Jean Claude Schonberg and arranged by Warren Barker, this West End classic is a firm favourite.

Leaving the audience singing into the interval, we enjoyed a break in the Hub’s cafe before getting ready for a very British opening piece in the second half: Yorkshire Overture.

A very British celebratory second half

Ollie playing his Joyful Skeleton solo on the xylophone. Photo courtesy of Alex Bostock.

Yorkshire Overture is a tricky piece to play but after lots and lots of rehearsing the difficult passages, we did it justice! It’s a piece by one of our country’s most prolific composers for wind band, Philip Sparke. It opens with a brass fanfare leading us into a melody which reminds us of the famous Yorkshiremen in Last of the Summer Wine as they adventure across the moors!

We dedicated our second piece, Eine Kleine Yiddishe Ragmusik, to Ukraine. Composed by Adam Gorb, the music is a fusion of Jewish Klezmer music and 1920s Ragtime.

Then followed a medley from the iconic Bond films… that’s James Bond. Arranged by Stephen Bulla, the piece featured the classic Bond theme tune as well as some of the best tunes from the Bond films including Goldfinger and Skyfall.

A Jubilee finale

We were very excited to be playing our celebratory finale with the Plymouth Maritime Corps of Drums. The Corps of Drums had been practising hard but unfortunately two days before the concert we heard that three of the four band members had come down with Covid and were unable to play with us. Both bands were gutted and we’re sorry to audience members who were looking forward to seeing this amazing fusion of bands. However, we continued with our British finale and hope you all enjoyed it.

Standing on stage at the end of our Jubilee concert. Photo courtesy of Alex Bostock.

The finale began with The Standard of St. George to celebrate St. George’s Day – which fell on the same day as our concert. We then played a patriotic High on a Hill featuring trumpet soloist Kerry. Our very royal penultimate piece, Crown Imperial, was performed at the coronation of King George VI in 1937 and again at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. A fitting piece to play at our Jubilee celebration.

And of course it wouldn’t be a Jubilee celebration without some flag waving to Britannic Salute. We love a bit of Rule Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory at Bournemouth and District Concert Band!

What a way to celebrate the 70th anniversary of HM The Queen’s ascension to the throne.

By Emma on flute

If you missed the concert or you loved it so much you want to hear some of the music again, check out our social media channels. There are lots of videos and photos from the night on our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube pages.