Brass Festival music hits all the right notes
Performances to bring back memories for care home residents. Tony Henderson reports
Hundreds of care home residents are set for a live music treat as part of Durham Brass Festival.
Ensembles from 10 County Durham bands will give performances in 20 care homes across the county on Sunday, July 20.
The visits are part of Durham Brass’s Sound of Sunday programme, which seeks to maximise audience access to musical performances.
The Sound of Sunday project was successfully trialled last year and is now being extended to cover 16 different towns and villages with the help of the County Durham-headquartered Banks Group, which is one of the festival’s lead sponsors.
The project will also involve care home residents being welcomed into schools to enjoy performances there, while a new mentoring project between Easington Brass Band and East Durham Schools has also been launched.
The annual Durham Brass Festival began on July 13 and continues until tomorrow (July 20).
Coun Lyndsey Fox, Durham County Council’s Cabinet member for economy and partnerships, said: “This is a real passion project for the Brass Festival team, and we’re excited to be extending it as part of this year’s festival with the Banks Group’s backing.
“Many of the people the bands will be playing for will have memories of hearing brass band music being practiced and performed in their communities on Sunday afternoons throughout their lives.
“Music has the power to take us to different times and places, and we hope that the memories these performances stir will have a positive impact on our audience members’ well-being in each location.”
The Banks Group is a long-term supporter of brass band music throughout the North East and is funding the festival’s schools programme, which sees street bands delivering performances in schools across County Durham to over 15,000 children and young people.
Banks is also the sponsor of the festival’s main afternoon concert on Sunday, which will see the Fairey Band giving an audio/visual performance of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition at Durham’s Gala Theatre.
Kate Culverhouse, community relations manager at the Banks Group, said: "We’re proud to be once again supporting this amazing festival and to be helping the organisers take brass band music out to people in every corner of our home county who might not otherwise have the chance to enjoy it.”
For further information on the Sound of Sunday project, and on the full Durham Brass Festival programme, visit the Festival website.