We meet at St John's Church or St John's Church Hall in Upper Norwood for rehearsals on Sunday afternoons from 2pm until 5pm. We are very privileged to be allowed to use this church with wonderful acoustics for some of our rehearsals. 

Each player is asked to contribute £3 per rehearsal to cover the cost of hiring the church or hall, coffee and cakes and hopefully a little left over to buy some new music. Players are asked to bring along their own music stands.

The Ensemble, as with most bands, does a few engagements a year to raise funds to buy new music and hopefully in future to buy equipment such as percussion kit, banners and pads. We try to keep these to a minimum as most players are involved in other groups.

In 2009 the Ensemble performed at the Secombe Theatre in Sutton in a concert organised in partnership with the Mayor of Sutton. This concert was the highlight of the year and brought to a climax the hard work the musicians had put in. A feature for this concert was the guest appearance of the Ceolsha Irish Dance Group who performed two solo spots, vocalist Emily Fahey who did three songs and the grand finale of the music and dances from Bill Whelan's Riverdance. 

The Ensemble appeared again at the Secombe Theatre in April 2010 where they performed with the Spiral Youth Theatre Group. The music featured The Wasps Overture by Ralph Vaughn Williams, Symphonic Dances from Fiddler on the Roof, The Day of the Dragon by Peter Graham and Pineapple Poll. The programme also included pieces by a woodwind and a tuba trio.  The finale piece was a selection of music from Guys and Doll's featuring The Spiral Youth Theatre Group. This concert raised £830 for The Mayor's Charity, which this year is St Raphaels Hospice.

The hope is that these concerts will become an annual feature with different guest performers joining the band on stage.

  

 

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY 2010

  

Sunday 25th July	Rehearsal	Hall	2-5pm
Sunday 8th August	Rehearsal	Hall	2-5pm
Sunday 12th September	Rehearsal	Hall	2-5pm
Sunday 26th September	Rehearsal	Hall	2-5pm
Sunday 10th October tbc	Rehearsal	Hall	2-5pm
Sunday 24th October	Rehearsal	Church	2-5pm
Sunday 7th November	Rehearsal	Church	2-5pm
Sunday 21st November	Rehearsal	Hall	2-5pm
Saturday 27th November tbc	Concert	Bandstand, Sutton	1 - 3.30pm
Saturday 16th April 2011 tbc	Concert	Secombe Theatre, Sutton	7.30pm