Line drawing

Line drawing
Drawn by the talented Luke Braddock

Friday 8 June 2012

Pre-Concert/Tour rehearsal

"Just let me hear some of that rock and roll music
Any old way you choose it
It's got a back beat, you can't blues it
Any old time you use it
Gotta be rock 'n' roll music
If you wanna dance with me
If you wanna dance with me"

...this is not technically true. You can blues it if you want to. :)

Greetings, SUWO's Blog readers! It has been a while! But now that final exams are behind us and we have naught to do but agonise over how we've done, it's time to focus on SUWO happenings again. And not a moment too soon, because we have a concert tomorrow evening that requires us to be bright and cheery and ready to play our absolute bestest.

And of course there's also, y'know, TOUR!!!

Because the University of Sheffield examination board fails to realise that SUWO rehearsals are way more important than the availability of big halls in which exams can be taken, last night saw us rehearsing in St Andrew's church. While this did require us having to walk in the rain, without waterproof shoes on (for some) to a location some of us had not previously been to, the hall at least had the good grace to be able to fit us all in. Having no percussion may or may not have helped with that.

Pieces we practiced included:

-Toccata Marziale by R. Vaughn Williams
- Eligia by Wouter Lenaerts, with Gareth at the conducting station (and a piece well worth dedicating some small amount of time, in this young blogger's humble opinion. It is quite pretty)
- Overture to Candide by Leonard Bernstein, with George conducting (and showing just how mighty his conducting arm is with the speed he has to do it at the end)
- Horsefly by CY Payne (noteworthy both because of its amusing name, and because the sheet music is so small that the name of the piece suddenly makes perfect sense - it's horsefly size!
- Shepherd's Hey by Percy Very-Very-Ginger-Dary Grainger, conducted by equally Ginger-dary George.
- Colonial Song by Percy Just-As-Ginger-As-In-The-Previous-Line Grainger, again conducted by George
- Second Suite for Band by Alfred Reed

Some exciting pieces there, well worth the effort of coming and seeing performed. I have no photos nor videos today I am afraid. Instead what I can offer is our fabulous concert schedule for the next week (also visible on the colourful banner adorning the top of this page):

9th June at 8pm: Summer Festival Concert - Firth Hall, Sheffield
11th June at 8:15pm: Concert at St. Peter's Church, St Jan's Kerk, Maastricht
12th June at 3pm: Concert at Cathédrale des Saints-Michel-et-Gudule, Brussels
13th June at 4pm: Concert in what hopefully won't be the pouring rain at Monschau Market Place
14th June at 8pm: Concert at Eglise St Jacques, Liege

So, if you happen to be kicking around Sheffield, or random parts of Belgium and Holland, at some point next week, feel free to watch us. However, I do realise that for most this will not be a possibility. As such, I shall be making note of what goes on, taking photos and recording videos, and the next blog entry on here shall be an awe-inspiring monolith of literary fireworks, talking about anything and everything that happens.

Stay tuned!

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