LOROS CONCERT
Jan. 18, 2014
Arriving at Hathern Parish Church to find a queue of people boded well for the Charity Concert being held there in aid of the LOROS Hospice, given by Hathern Senior Band and indeed there was a capacity audience.
The Band were certainly on top form for their first concert of 2014 and together with Musical Director David Newman, treated the audience to a lively programme in a variety of musical styles, which emphatically demonstrated that brass bands don’t just play marches. The concert was something of a worldwide tour; we were taken on a trip to America which had us Breezin’ Down Broadway and our toes were set tapping with a fast paced rendition of Do-Re-Mi from the Sound of Music, set in Salzburg, Austria. Next it was off to Vienna for a great version of the Fire Bell Polka by Josef Strauss, complete with a ‘fire bell’ expertly struck by Rebecca Simms, rather different from playing her usual instrument, the tuba. We then called in at Berlin to hear the well known number Mack the Knife from the Threepenny Opera, which had its premiere in the city.
The solos featured during the evening changed the pace and mood; euphonium player Graham Rix expertly played Lament, a beautiful tune by Carl Jenkins; there was a very smooth version of the George Gershwin number Embraceable You by trombonist Simon Baum and flugel horn player Lesley Bentley gave a powerful rendition of the lovely ballad Right Here Waiting.
The concert was a huge success and raised £2,158.00 for the Leicestershire Hospice, including a donation of £750.00 from Barclays Bank under their match funding scheme. Annually, around 2,500 people benefit from the care provided by LOROS, either in the Hospice or in the Community and to carry on with this work, £4.5 million has to be raised each year. The cheque was accepted by Adrian Walker of LOROS who thanked everyone for achieving such a splendid amount and he was pleased to confirm that 90p of every pound raised would go towards patient care.
To conclude a great evening’s entertainment for a great cause we ended our whistle stop tour in Paris with a wonderfully fast and furious version of the Can Can. Indeed, it was a superb evening of marvellous music and David Newman’s amusing anecdotes and introductions to the numbers certainly added to the entertainment.
On behalf of Hathern Band, David Newman thanked Barclays for their on-going support of this concert, which has now raised nearly £28,000.00 for LOROS since the first one in 2002. He also thanked everyone involved with the concert, particularly church members John & Rosemary Worsfold for their help and also the audience, as without such support it would not have been possible to raise over £2,000.00 for the Leicestershire & Rutland Hospice.
Louise Haworth – Publicity Officer
Louise Haworth