Toddington Town Brass Band, Contesting, Musical Tuition

2010 marks Toddington Town Band's centenary year, with a programme of events to celebrate this milestone.  The band has already completed their very successful “Teas on the Green” afternoon, playing to a large appreciative audience on a bright summer’s afternoon.  We would like to thank all who joined us on the day and hope you enjoyed the afternoon as much as we did.  Thanks must also go to our “band of helpers” that made and served the Cream Teas during the afternoon and to Rita and Roger Stares for providing the vital ingredient of water for the tea urns.

On 26^th June the band returned to the Village Green playing at the St George’s Church Fete, another stunning afternoon was complimented by the light music performed by the band to great appreciation by the audience.  Moving forward the band now venture away from the Village in the coming weeks playing engagements at Cheddington near Leighton Buzzard, Chalgrave Memorial Hall and finishing the early Summer season at Stowe School near Buckingham.

The banding season picks up again in late August when the Toddington Band are playing at a weekend musical festival in Preaux du Perche in France; on returning home they travel to Ilford in Essex to play at a charity football event to raise funds for “Help For Heroes” a really worthwhile charity, and the following week are performing at another charity event at the Barton Village Festival.

The high point of our year is our Centenary Concert being held at Parkfields Middle School, Park Road on Saturday 2^nd October at 7.30pm for what promises to be a great evening of celebration through music.  The band has invited some of their “past” players to join them at this concert to help celebrate this milestone in its history.  Tickets will be available at the door and if you would like to join us but have transport problems please contact us using the numbers below and we will try and resolve these for you.  We have a really exciting evening in store and we would love to see you there. Please see the poster in this magazine for more details.

Our learner band continues to develop under the baton of Andrea Horsler. The Learners are also practising hard to prepare music for the Centenary Concert and plan to join the seniors in a massed piece during the evening.

We would like to remind you of our offer of free tuition. Anyone of any skill level is welcome to come to the social club on a Tuesday night to create music. Dave, Christine Anne and Pamela offer instruction on the full range of brass instruments and we even offer the free loan of an instrument subject to availability, so please contact our secretary for more information.

Our schedule of engagements continues to develop through the rest of the year with a Songs of Praise service being held at St. Georges in October, Remembrance Sunday on the Village Green and Music for the Operation Christmas Child service at Woburn Church  in November and now I’ve said the “C” word, our Christmas Concert in the Village Hall on Saturday 4^th December. If you would like to hear us perform, please join us at any of these events.

The band are also planning an auction of promises later this year to raise funds to help them to continue to provide facilities for brass band music making in the village, full details will  be included in our next report or visit our website, www.toddingtontownband.com for more information. Thank you

Bandmaster           Ian Smith               01525 876839

Secretary              Derek Jones          01582 560311