Rehearsal Update

Please note that we will now not be rehearsing on Friday 22nd February , this is half-term week and quite a few people will be away.

Concert - Celebrating 20 Years of Playing

2019 sees BWO celebrate its 20th anniversary. Formed in 1999 from a select group of musicians, as part of Beenham’s millennium celebrations, the orchestra now boasts over 40 players. 

As part of the celebration, the two concerts this year will include our favourite repertoire from the last 20 years. 

Both of these concerts will be held at St Mary’s Church in Thatcham. The first is on Saturday 9 March at 7.30pm and includes pieces by Vaughan Williams, Holst, Britten and Gershwin. Come and see (or rather hear) if we’ve chosen your favourite music.

Tickets Paid in advance £10 On the door: £12 U18s £2

Available from Orchestra Members, Picture iT, 17 High Street, Thatcham or phone (answerphone) 0118 9712575

Rehearsal and Performance Dates

Spring Term 2019

Jan     4th, 11th, 18th, 25th
Feb    1st,  8th, 15th, 
Mar    1st,  8th, 15th, 22nd, 28th
Apr     5th

No rehearsal Feb 22nd
Friday 8th March - Rehearsal in St Mary's Church, 7.30pm
Saturday 9th March - Concert, St Mary's Thatcham 

Summer Term 2019
Apr    26th
May    3rd,  10th, 17th, 24th, 31st
Jun    7th, 14th, 21st, 28th
Jul     5th,  12th, 19th

Saturday 4th May - Whitchurch Fete
Sunday 9th June - Newbury Bandstand
Saturday 13th July - Englefield Flower Show
Friday 19th July - Band on the Rec

Autumn Term 2019
Aug    30th,  First Rehearsal
Saturday 28th September - Concert, St Mary's Thatcham
Friday 13th December - Beenham Christmas Concert

Christmas Concert

Friday 14th December, 7.30pm

Beenham School Hall

Join us for a free concert of Carols and traditional Christmas music, mulled wine and mince pies.

A collection will be taken for charity. This year we are supporting
Us in a Bus  a not-for-profit charity organisation that offer opportunities for people with profound learning disabilities and complex needs.
                        http://usinabus.org.uk/

Post Concert / Too early for Christmas Dinner

 Lovely evening at The Six Bells in Beenham.

We raffled a beautiful pom pom wreath made by Daisy Hodgson and raised £100 for Cancer Relief.

Concert Review

Thank you for inviting Mr Redwood to attend the Beenham Wind Orchestra concert. Mr Redwood very much enjoyed himself and wrote up the event on his website. He has asked me to forward his article to you as he feels yourself and the organisers might find this of interest:

Beenham Wind orchestra remembers 1918

I attended the Beenham Wind Orchestra to hear their Poppies and Peace concert on Saturday. They were magnificent. After two years in the planning, they delivered a moving and well-orchestrated programme of music.

The concert began with the powerful and threatening music from Holst’s Mars, reminding us of the terrors of war and the sounds of the violence. Dartmoor 1912 evoked the happy relations between man and horse before they went to war with suffering for both. Music from Noel Coward’s Cavalcade sent us trying to identify the popular songs of the First World War. I think I heard Tipperary, Keep the Home Fires burning, Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and Take me back to dear old Blighty. David Tredici’s alarming Wartime told us how the sounds of the bugle and the intense fighting that ensued swamped the strains of Abide with Me that the soldiers sang before battle.

Later in the concert we were lulled by the softer tones of Holst’s Venus. The haunting strains of the Benedictus from the Armed Man by Karl Jenkins were memorably played. A newer piece, Sunset, by Richard Saucedo served to remind us that conflict and death carries through to our own era. The evening was finished off with the much happier and optimistic English country garden. Chris Guy our compere kept us well informed of what we were to hear. Robert Roscoe conducted it all in good humour and with great skill.

I would like to say a big thank you to all the musicians for a wonderful concert, and to the organisers for making us welcome.

Yours sincerely

Myles Larrington | Caseworker and Parliamentary Assistant

Office of the Rt Hon John Redwood MP

Member of Parliament for Wokingham | House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA

Poppies and Peace

Jess and Lynn Portwood on Euph and Jonathan Hodgetts and Will Druiett on Tuba

The bass section from Saturday's Beenham Wind Orchestra concert. 

Thanks to Jonathan Hodgetts for playing, bringing along his colleague Will Druiett and a 'Wessex Tubas' Euphonium for Jess to play. 

Anne Laney, usually principal Clarinet, playing her beautiful Harp in 'Venus' - a first for her.