Loughborough Concert Band

Saturday 2nd December 2023

Carillon Court for charity Love4Life

This annual concert is played under the dome at Carillon Court shopping centre in Loughborough. This year we played for Love4Life a charity that was founded in 2007 out of a concern for the safety and health of girls who lived on a particular estate in Loughborough. Since then, it has expanded in both aims and reach – to encompass young people aged 11-18, and into Derby. The collectors definitely found their motivation that day – it was freezing cold but the girls found the energy to dance to Fairy Tale of New York!

We played a range of Christmas music and carols. The audience appreciated our playing and clapped vigorously, though they may have been trying to keep warm!

It was the first concert for Claudia Shum (it’s not always this cold, Claudia) a pianist who taught herself to play the glockenspiel so she could join the band, and we were kindly helped out by dep, Ian Bartram on euphonium.

Sunday 3rd December 2023

Hodson Hall

Raising the Roof with Caroline Sharpe Community singers and Loughborough Grammar School sax ensemble.

This concert definitely showed the band at its resilient best! Given the number of performers, we weren’t over blessed for space (watch out those on the front row!) but performed our programme with grace and style. We played a mixture of Christmas music and pieces taken from the band’s wider canon. The stirring British Legion March was followed by Highlights from Frozen. The hauntingly beautiful Highland Cathedral was included in a programme that also featured Overture to a Winter Festival and a much-appreciated performance of Fairy Tale of New York, the band’s tribute to Shane MacGowan who died that week. First flute, Yvonne Renouf, showed her versatility by playing with the choir on Star of Bethlehem and the whole evening was closed by a mass performance of White Christmas.