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.

Excellent Show!

This last Saturday morning we had an excellent day at the Lismore Show.

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It was a bit of a drizzly day down at the showgrounds, but other than a light sprinkle half way through playing Liberty Bell the rain mostly held off for us until after we had finished. We were on early in the morning and started off to a quiet audience however as the music came, so did the crowd. P1030782 copy We played an hour set including the crowd pleasing Oom Pah Pah and one of our new favorites Procession of the Sadar.
It was a fun day, with a great performance, even if the rain did catch some of us later in the afternoon.

Centenary Performance a Blast!

On Saturday the 3rd of October, Lismore South Public celebrated its centenary and Lismore City Concert Band were invited to augment the ceremony, starting it with a stirring rendition of Waltzing Matilda.

The audience was an enthusiastic amalgamation of past students, parents, teachers and community members. After hearing three of the past headmasters reminisce, watching the planting of a commemorative tree, and seeing the P&C give the school a new banner, the Lismore City Concert Band played the ceremony out with the very Aussie Click Go the Shears. This was followed by a further 40 minute set of our repertoire easing from the ceremony into generational mingling reunions (dating back to 1926) and general appreciation of the historical displays.

The band was sounding particularly good, and we received several compliments on the overall tone, and versatile repertoire.

Thank you to Lismore South Public for having us, it was an excellent day.

Lismore South Public School performance

Lismore South Public School Centenary Performance

DUST OFF YOUR INSTRUMENTS FOR THE LISMORE SOUTH PUBLIC SCHOOL CENTENARY: INVITATION TO PAST MEMBERS OF LISMORE CITY CONCERT BAND

Lismore City Concert Band will be playing at the official opening of Lismore South Public School Centenary on Saturday 3rd October. The Band Director, Mr Ben Van Kleef said “this event fulfils our mission to bring the community together to make music.”

In previous years the Concert Band had a very strong association with the school, when many students and members of their extended families played with the Band.

During the 1970s-90s the band had over 80 players, including many school students, with rehearsals taking place in the Lismore Band Hall behind Oakes Oval in Magellan Street.

Today the band is rebuilding on a small and committed core of players, and has ambitious plans to recreate its past glories. The band welcomes previous players, particularly past students and family members of the Lismore South Public School, to join them playing at these celebrations.

Band Director, Mr Ben Van Kleef, said “it would be a great honour to have past members of the band and school join us for this performance”. If you’d like to take part, please contact Ben on 0432 575 911.

The Lismore City Concert Band rehearses during school term on Monday evenings at the Northern Rivers Conservatorium, 5-6.30pm in the upstairs Concert Room. The final rehearsal in preparation for the Lismore South Public School event is Friday 2nd October 2-4pm.

ANZAC photo link.

Anzac day performance

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Our performance at Lismore’s 2015 ANZAC Day Service was photographed by the Northern Star (click the image for a link).

A great performance, and lovely to be involved in remembering the ANZACs.