DANDENONG BAND
City of Greater
DANDENONG BRASS - A WONDERFUL WEEKEND OF MUSIC AND COMMUNITY!
PERFORMANCES
PERFORMANCES
Mon 30 Oct 2023
What a wonderful weekend of music and community!
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
LATROBE VALLEY EISTEDDFOD 2022
Sun 11 Sep 2022
First place in A Grade at the Latrobe Valley Eisteddfod today!
Today the Band competed in both the A Grade and B Grade sections at the Latrobe Valley Eisteddfod hosted at the wonderful new Gippsland Performing Arts Centre. We played well enough to take home first and the Griffiths Trophy in A Grade, while we came third in B Grade. Congratulations to Boroondara Brass for placing first in B Grade and second in A Grade, and to Darebin City Brass-Northern Brass for placing second in B Grade.
A huge thank you to all our Band Members, supporters and Committee, our helpers Steve Semmler-Farr, Belinda and James Sileni, and Hetty Lawson, our new regular Phillipa Edwards, all of the Eisteddfod organisers and volunteers, the adjudicator, sponsors, the Victorian Bands' League, and all of the other bands who performed today. Finally, thanks to Jared McCunnie for the great photo.
The Latrobe Valley Eisteddfod always makes for a great weekend of brass banding and this year was no exception!
LATROBE VALLEY EISTEDDFOD SOLOS 2022
Congratulations to our own Todd O'Shea and Paul Simmonds who competed at the Latrobe Valley Eisteddfod on Sat 10 Sep. The two performed very well, coming first in their duet while Todd also came second in the Open Bruce Armstrong Memorial Solo section. Well done to you both!
STATE BAND CHAMPIONSHIPS 2022
The City of Greater Dandenong Band competed in our first in-person competition since 2019 over the weekend at the Victorian State Band Championships in Ballarat. It was a great weekend of banding, overall.
We were very proud of our Band’s performance under the expert direction of our Musical Director Jamie Lawson. It was a fantastic return to the competition stage for our Band, and we all walked away smiling. We are especially proud of our newest member Cassidy Hemphill who played brilliantly in her first brass band competition.
Thank you to our helpers on the day – Nick Beale on Euphonium, and George Melitsis, Hetty Lawson, and Phillipa Edwards on Cornet. Thanks to our loyal supporters who made the journey to watch us in person, and to those who watched online.
Congratulations go to Boroondara Brass, the Open B Grade Brass Champions, to Geelong West Brass Band for placing second, and to Box Hill City Band for placing third.
Big thanks to the organisers – the Victorian Bands' League and the Royal South Street Society – for hosting a very well organised competition. Thanks also to the City of Ballarat Brass Band for the use of your Bandroom as a rehearsal venue.
Finally, thanks to Brassbanned for live streaming the entire weekend and making the competition accessible to people everywhere. If you would like to see our performance for yourself, you can view the Brassbanned recording on YouTube here (at about 8 hours, 50 minutes)
​Friday 29 March 2024
National Band Championships - Hymn & Test
University of Adelaide, South Australia
Click for more info
Saturday 30 March 2024
National Band Championships - Parade of Bands
Adelaide, NSW
Click for more info
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Sunday 31 March 2024
National Band Championships - Own Choice & Stage March
University of Adelaide, South Australia
The City of Greater Dandenong Band is an Australian Red Cross Lifeblood Team!
Lifeblood Team is the group donation program of the Australian Red Cross Blood Service. Their goal is to rally organisations and groups across the country to achieve, together, 25% of the blood donations needed by Australia.
It’s about raising spirits and team pride - and about the sense of unity you get from working together for something bigger than yourself.
You can join our Lifeblood Team HERE using our group name:
City of Greater Dandenong Band
And you can check out our
Lifeblood Team Results HERE
