Senators join the Military!!

On 9th of July, the Senators performed with the Band & Bugles of the
Light Division to hundreds of spectators in Winchester, Hampshire.

After leaving Eastleigh at 9am for the 15 minute drive up to Winchester
the corps members (after rigorous security checks!!) entered the Army
Training Centre, home of the band. There, the members were able to watch
the Band & Bugles of the Light Division rehearse their evening
performance on the parade ground.

The Band and Bugles of the Light Division (one of the top Army Bands)
performed a programme of about 6 pieces, including Russian Sailors Dance
(ala Boston and SCV 1994) and Carmina Burana, which was a bit of a crowd
favourite at 9:30 in the morning and just the job to wake everyone up!

After a very short individual warm up time, the Senators then joined the
Light Division and rehearsed the Grand Finale - Stravinskys Firebird
Suite and Evening Hymn and Sunset under the direction of Major Calum
Gray, Director of Music for the Light Division.

It was very interesting playing and rehearsing with such a different
style group of musicians. It took the hornline a couple of attempts at
all having to breath on a bar line before the final chord of Firebird,
normally the kind of no-no the brass staff would stop a segment for at
rehearsal!  Craig and Tim were just glad the Senators had ended up in
the correct key!! 

The ensemble of full woodwind, Bb, Eb, F and concert brass, Bb
non-valved bugles and a full range of G bugles was definitely a very
unique sound, especially when all were played by such accomplished
musicians.

The Senators took the field at "18:30 hrs" after an introduction by
Craig Sherratt to perform Mission Incredible to an appreciative, if
slightly surprised audience! Not many Military parade grounds have
played host to a tune like Cuba before! 

The Grand Finale also went very well with the "massed bands" of The
Senators and the Band & Bugles of the Light Division performing a
powerful rendition of Firebird and also the touching Evening Hymn &
Sunset before the Light Division rounded the evening off with the
National Anthem.

The day ended with Major Calum Gray presenting The Senators with a
special plaque that will take pride of place in the corps trophy cabinet
and thanking the corps for their performances and professionalism during
the day.

The Corps certainly showed everyone present a very different and
enjoyable take on marching music and also went a fair way in proving
that Drum Corps' can be very flexible in our performances and are
certainly not confined to simply learning 10 minutes of music every
year. 

Yesterday more people were introduced to the drum corps idiom and were
shown the validity of members of our activity as marching musicians at
the highest level, not only on the same bill as the professionals but
playing alongside them too.

Everyone was very happy with how the day had gone and all the members
had really enjoyed performing in such a different event. 

A Full report and photographs can be found at the Senators Website,
http://www.senators.org.uk