Joint Concert
by Trevor Johnston
Last Sunday the 29th of November the Drogheda Brass Band took part in a joint concert between themselves and the Ballywalter Flute Band. The concert is hoped to be the first step in developing stronger links between the Irish Association of Brass and Concerts (IABCB) and the North of Ireland Band Association (NIBA).
The idea was to develop some sort of links between the musical communities in the country; earlier in the evening the bands had mixed over an early dinner. The Drogheda Brass Band were chosen because of their continuing participation in the North of Ireland Band Championships (see the next news article) and a musical group very popular in the North of Ireland - the flute band - was chosen to represent the North of Ireland.
The show was divided between the two bands with the Drogheda Brass Band kicking off the proceedings with "Fanfare for a New Age" by Goff Richards, a great entrance piece. Among the pieces played in the programme were a euphonium solo; Anthony Murphy played "Dublin Fair City".
The audience itself was not huge, but as the chairman of the IABCB, Joe Shiels, remarked, a more discerning and appreciative audience could not have been found. They surely appreciated the middle item in the concert, namely The Carlton Singers from Drogheda. A choir group consisting of about twelve members, they kept the standard of the show at its high level.
This high standard was a feature of the show; Drogheda Brass Band being one of the top two bands in the Republic of Ireland and the Ballywalter Flute Band being no less than world flute band champions. They certainly were an extremely polished act with a very high standard of playing. Among their programme were two solos - one for the rarely featured xylophone and one for the even less often featured tin-whistle. All that can be said was that the xylophone was brilliant, the tin-whistle truly virtuosic.
At the end of the night the two associations presented the Carlton Singers and each other's bands with a plaque, a small token of their appreciation. Finally it was announced that it is hoped to make this an annual event; so hopefully next year the Drogheda Brass Band will be heading northwards to Ballywalter.