DANDENONG BAND
City of Greater
DANDENONG BRASS NEWS
2024 OPEN AIR MOVIES PRE-SHOW CONCERT
Fri 16 Feb 2024
Well we've had a wonderful start to the year, kicking off February with our first gig of 2024!
Dandenong Brass were given the opportunity to play a 20 minute set at the Open Air Movies Event out the front of Springvale City Hall on Friday 16th of February run by the City of Greater Dandenong Council.
Using our repertoire of songs, we dazzled the crowd with music like Shake it Off by Taylor Swift to movie blockbusters like Soul Bossa Nova and several others. It's always great fun playing well known pieces of music to a welcoming audience.
Playing to approximately 290 people in the audience before getting the chance to watch the Super Mario Movie outdoors in the open air, was a blast for all involved.
It was an absolute pleasure to be a part of such a wonderful community event. We look forward to many more opportunities, and events to play at coming up in the near future.
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Written by Nat Potenzi
A WONDERFUL WEEKEND OF MUSIC AND COMMUNITY!
Mon 30 Oct 2023
On Saturday 28th October, Dandenong Brass dazzled the audience at Springvale Town Hall. This enthusiastic ensemble performed two iconic pieces at the City of Greater Dandenong Band's annual concert: A Night at the Oscars.
Dandenong Brass kicked off their set with a beautiful rendition of I Dreamed A Dream, from the musical Les Miserables, featuring soloist Ciya on cornet. Next we changed our style and performed a very upbeat and energetic piece: a medley from the various songs heard in the 1964 film Mary Poppins. As well as the wonderful work from euphonium soloist, Ethan, in Feed the Birds, our percussionists also helped us to ''step (and play) in time'' throughout the many moods and song transitions within the piece. The audience loved this song so much, it was voted ''Best Brass Performance of the Night''.
The music performance continued into Sunday as well, where Dandenong Brass had the opportunity to play in the inaugural Victorian State Youth Festival of Brass at the Hawthorn Town Hall. Led by Rachael Shineton, the members of Dandenong Brass were able to dazzle the audience once again. This time, starting our set off with Scarborough Fair in which the trombones got the chance to show off their skills with this beautiful and melodic tune. Playing for the second time of the weekend, the audience were encapsulated with another beautiful rendition of I Dreamed A Dream and then finishing off the set with the much loved Mary Poppins Suite.
As well as having the opportunity to play for and to listen to other Youth and Training Bands throughout the afternoon, the Festival ended with a massed item in which all members from each of the bands were invited to join the State Youth Band on stage and play one final piece altogether (How to Train Your Dragon).
The rich sounds that came from the stage during this piece were incredible. To see more than 60 young people on the stage, playing music and finding pure joy from it was such an amazing thing to witness for an ''old'' gal like me!
Well done to all of those involved and a HUGE thank you to everyone who supported us over the weekend and who continue to do so each week! I am extremely proud of the efforts from the Dandenong Brass team and am super excited to see where this group will go next!
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Written by Nat Potenzi
