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Reunion Day fun!

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The Lismore City Concert Band has been supporting the Lismore community for a long time now, since John Allen founded it in 1979. This year we got together members, new and old, to remember some of the good, funny and successful times.

The day started with the committee members arriving early to set up a display of our rich history. Certificates of thanks from businesses or event participation, trophies from various eisteddfods and events, many photos of the band throughout the years (both professional and some great personal photos) and some of our instruments on display.

Then current and ex-members started arriving, as well as our invited guests – some of the band’s previous musical directors.

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We celebrated with some champagne and snacks, and the current LCCB Committee President, Mark Lindbergh gave a short speech before the five present ex-directors cut the cake.five (From Left-Right: Heath Florey, John Allen, Marian Web, Ben van Kleef, and Glen Kellet)

After everyone had caught up with each other, enjoyed the cake and had a chance to look at the display we moved into the Concert Room where the current band was joined by some of the past members, and each of the conductors led us in a few of their favorites.

John Allen: Black & White Army, Washington Post and Lustspiel
Heath Florey: Procession of the Sadar
Marian Web: Stray Cat Strut
Glen Kellet: Hogan’s Heroes
Ben van Kleef: When the Stars Begin to Fall, Collumbia:Gem of the Ocean

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Finally we ended the day by joining the Lismore Lantern Parade and marching from the Memorial Bars across town to Oaks Oval.

Ex-members can join us for the Lantern Parade March!

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WHAT: LCCB is marching in the Lantern Parade following our Reunion.
WHERE: Meeting at the Lismore Skate Park (here), then joining the Lantern Parade and Marching across town
WHEN: 5.30pm meeting Saturday June 25th
WHO: All welcome to join us (inc. ex-members etc who couldn’t make reunion day)
WEARING: All black – so we can wear the costumes over the top.
PLAYING: When the saints go marching by, Down by the riverside, Little light of mine (contact us for music if you need it)

**If you couldn’t make the reunion feel free to still join us for the march, we would love to have you!!

Upcoming Reunion

Lismore City Concert Band has been around for almost 40 years now, and this year we are celebrating with a reunion.

The event will be on Saturday June 25 from 1.30-4pm, upstairs in the NR Conservatorium concert room.

The Lismore City Concert Band has been running since 1979.

All past members, friends associates are very welcome to come. We’ll be having an afternoon catch-up including a play of some old favorites (which you’re welcome to just watch, or join in on), and then following our reunion event the LCCB will be marching in the Lismore Lantern Parade – which again, anyone is welcome to join us for.

We will be meeting at the Lismore Skate Park at 5.30pm for the march.

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Let us know if you’re thinking of coming here or contact us for any questions here.

(More details coming soon!)

Band Enrichment Day a success!

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The enrichment day went off like a blast. Everyone had fun and we played some great music.

A special thanks to our tutors Julius Hoffstetter, James Harvey, Claire Axman, Rex Carter and of course our Band Director Ben van Kleef.

We played through several favorite songs such as Washington Post, Oom Pah Pah, Procession of the Sardar, as well as a few movie themes and some of our Australian set. All in all  we sight-read through around 12-15 pieces, some with more laughter than skill, but by the end of the day they were all sounding pretty good.

The day was broken into sectional rehearsals, where tutors focused on the trickier parts of some of the pieces (though in general for the day everyone’s sight reading was very good!), and group sections with the full band.

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The band sounded great. Especially our afternoon group rehearsal. Everyone had sorted out the major bugs and the pieces were sounding very solid. It was particularly nice having a really big bass-section, some of the usual rehearsal scores sounded extra special with the extra oomph.

Finally in the afternoon we all changed into our bright colours and black long pants (despite the heat) and headed up to SCU to perform for the Relay for Life event. Unfortunately there were a few clashes with the MC for the event, however the band handled it quite professionally and we didn’t let it ruin our fun!

We all had an excellent day and are looking forward to possible future repetitions.

Some more photos have gone up on our facebook group – if you were there and took any photos then add them to the folder or contact us to send them through to us to share.

 

 

 

Band skill development sessions – NEW!

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It’s the start of a brand new year and we are very pleased to announce that in 2016 the Lismore City Concert Band will be running a new weekly session especially for new players (and current players who want to improve their band skills).

The new Band Skills Development session will  be held before the regular LCCB rehearsals on Mondays throughout school term. All sessions are held in the upstairs Concert Space at the Northern Rivers Conservatorium (NRC).

Please note: Regular LCCB rehearsals will start half an hour later than previously to allow for the new session.

Monday Rehearsal times:

Session 1    4:45 -5:45  (Band Skills Development)
Session 2    6:00 – 7:30 (Regular LCCB Rehearsal)

For more information please contact Band Master, Ben Van Kleef (Contact Us)

Band plays Lismore Australia Day

At this year’s Lismore Australia Day Ceremony, the Lismore City Concert Band enjoyed the best view of proceedings from centre stage at City Hall. The event kicked off with a rousing rendition of the national anthem to accompany the flag raising ceremony. The Band was called upon a number of times throughout the morning, providing some Australian tunes to help welcome 23 new Australians in the Australia day Citizenship Ceremony and to give thanks to those receiving this year’s Australia Day Awards. Another exciting opportunity for the Band to share music with our community.

Thanks to Paul Tuthill, official photographer on the day, for generously providing this beautiful shot.

LCCB Aust Day 2016_Paul Tuthill photography

Casual Christmas Concert a Cracker!

With the year drawing to a close the LCCB has been looking forward to our annual Christmas concert. It is a slightly informal affair, as we celebrate not only Christmas, but also our  achievements for the year of 2015 too. We had been carefully honing our skill under the eye and baton of our musical director Ben van Kleef, and were all keen to play the last performance for the year.

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The performance was a success with many laughs and Christmas cheer. We played an hour set, including sing-a-longs of some well loved Christmas carols and a guessing-the-country game on our rendition of Jingle Bells Around the World (with several short jingle-bells-isk sections in styles such as German waltz, Chinese pentatonic and Russian Polka).

There was also a short awards ceremony for the players and thank yous to Ben van Kleef and the NR Conservatorium, and the draw for the Christmas Raffle.

We had a great evening and we hope our audience did too. The LCCB wishes you all a very merry Christmas and a musical New Year!

Drum roll please! The raffle winners are…

Our Christmas concert (more on that here) went off with a blast, but of course we can’t forget the Christmas Raffle draw as well.

Thank you again to all those businesses that have supported us throughout the year, and here especially to those who gave donations for our Christmas prize-pool. We raised an impressive $1378.30, which we look forward to putting towards further enriching the Lismore City Concert Band for it’s members and the Lismore community.

Now, without further ado, congratulations to the following raffle winners:

  1. E13 Blue: Morrow
  2. E43 Blue: Geoff@Goanna
  3. C67 Black: Letitia Scott
  4. E86 Blue: Jon Shatwell
  5. C88 Purple: Margaret Louise
  6. C29 Orange: Kerri Woods
  7. E67 Black: Amy Chapman
  8. F66 Orange: Leonie Lane
  9. C13 Purple: Amy Chapman
  10. E28 Black: Lisa Read
  11. E49 Purple: Sam
  12. F4 Green: Dirk
  13. C35 Red: Gayl Feros
  14. C74 Black: ill Scott
  15. E39 Purple: Paul

 

Upcoming Christmas Concert December 14

Lismore City Concert Band has had another excellent year and we’re celebrating with our annual Christmas concert on December 14th.

The concert is free and is held in our practice space in the Concert Room on the top floor of the NR Conservatorium on the corner of Magellan and Keen Streets, Lismore.  The concert is primarily a way to see how far we’ve come throughout the year and will include some of our best pieces as well as Christmas Carols and even a few sing-alongs.

It is also where we draw our Christmas raffle (over $500 dollars worth of prizes!! – If you are interested in buying a ticket feel free to message us with your contact details here).

If you are a prospective band member we very much encourage you to come and listen and chat to our members.