The Sidney Concert Band will present its Swing into Spring concert next weekend, and this time proceeds will go to the Canadian Red Cross for the Fort McMurray Disaster Relief Fund.
Musical Director Rob Bannister said the concert will be similar to what they’ve done before and will present a variety of music.
“The band is really quite versatile in the combination of players that we have available,” he said.
In addition to the band music, they’re going to feature their young folks again who are in the band, which ranges from age 17 through to those in their mid 80s.
“So that’s kind of nice to have that generation mix, that we all share something in common,” said Bannister.
He said they will open up the concert this year with something that a lot of European orchestras close to, which is a piece titled Thunder and Lightning Polka by Johann Strauss II.
“Usually a lot of groups feature that as their finale or their encore but we’re going to do something different, we’re going to start with it,” he said.
They will also be doing another interesting piece by John Philip Sousa titled The New York Hippodrome March.
The concert begins at 2 p.m. and runs until 4 p.m. on May 29, and will feature vocalists Stephanie Benbow, Kryn Zedel, Georgina Stevens, and Jason Gordon (who they featured last time). He will do a Euphonium solo.
One of the band members will also be getting up on stage to do a Beatles tune, titled Honey Pie, which Bannister said represents the old British music hall style of playing and singing.
“It’s not a standard Beatles tune, it’s one that was written by one of the Beatles’ father.”
Tickets to the Concert Band performance are $15 and can be purchased at the Mary Winspear Centre box office at 250-656-0275.
