ORILLIA SILVER BAND GOING FOR GOLD AT NORTH AMERICA BRASS BAND CHAMPIONSHIPS; HEAR PREVIEW SATURDAY NIGHT

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

ORILLIA — Dear patriots, want to hear one of the best brass bands in the land — without going to the States.

For the first time in its long history, the OSB will be travelling to the North American Brass Band Championships held in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The band will perform on April 4th and 5th.

The Orillia Silver Band has registered as a contestant group in the annual North American Brass Band Championship contest. This year, the contest will be held in Ft. Wayne, Indiana during April 2025 and will include many competing bands from across the continent.

Neil Barlow, the band’s music director invites you to a concert that will include the selections that the band will perform for the contest along with many other fine pieces of music. Our Contest Preview Concert takes place on Saturday, March 22, 7 p.m. at the St. Paul’s Centre in Orillia. Concert tickets are available from the Orillia Silver Band website and at the door.

He says they are at their “absolute best,” after months of rehearsals.

A road trip planned last fall before tariff trouble will see the Silver Band going for gold with a chance to hear them first here in Orillia. Photo Orillia Silver Band

Opening the concert evening will be the famous Fanfare from La Peri by Paul Dukas. Also on the concert are the haunting Adagio for Strings by Samual Barber and the beautiful Shepherd’s Song, a lovely French folk song arranged by Goff Richards. Headlining the concert is the wonderful Laude by composer James Curnow. This monumental work for brass and percussion is the obligatory “test piece” which all bands will perform for the contest.

The concert includes the classic work Little Suite for Band by the British composer Malcolm Arnold. And for lovers of compositions in the pop genre from the 1970s, the band will perform a great arrangement of the tune Music by guitarist John Miles.

Please put this exciting concert on your calendar. Be a part of the local movement to support our Orillia-based band on the North American contest scene! Your help and encouragement will be greatly appreciated.

Stay home and avoid the trip to Fort Wayne, Ind., and hear the Orillia Silver Band at its finest this Saturday night at 7 p.m. at the St. Paul’s Centre.

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