Port Lincoln City Band

The Port Lincoln City Band welcomed 34 Victorian School students with teachers and admin staff last week, with a series of musical events held throughout the city.

Port Lincoln City Band was contacted by St Michaels Grammar School’s Musical Director, Chris McGillan, who expressed an interest in visiting Port Lincoln and performing with the City Band.

Chris McGillan said, “I found the City Band’s fantastic website and sent them an email. I received a reply from Valerie (secretary PLCB) who said the band was more than happy to get together with us. From there on we linked in with the High School and after many emails back and forth, we came to Port Lincoln”.

A number of activities were planned to exhibit St Michael’s musical abilities together with local musicians. Tuesday 30^th of June, the night they arrived, was a combined rehearsal with the City Band at the High School hall. Wednesday, St Michaels rehearsed with the Port Lincoln High School band and then performed at Ravendale community complex in a Jazz performance. The Jazz performance included local jazz band Boston Bay Jazz, the Port Lincoln High School Jazz band and St Michaels Big Band and Super Band. The bands from PLHS and SMGS then combined for more great music.

On Thursday the St Michaels students provided a school concert at Pt. Lincoln Primary School and then rehearsed with the PLHS and members of the City Band in preparation for the Combined Concert held Thursday night. The concert was held at the High School hall and music was provided by the Port Lincoln City Band, St Michaels Grammar School bands and the Port Lincoln High School Band and attracted a large audience. The donation entry raised $285 for the Salvation Army Winter Appeal.

Throughout the concert the audience enjoyed a number of performances that included the St Michaels String Quartet, Big Band (directed by Natalie Calia), Super Band and Concert Band. St Michael’s Musical Director handed his baton to student director, Dante Kurth who led the concert band and vocalist Zara Gates in song.

The concert finale was a combination of all musicians, forming a “Megaband”. The Megaband was directed by Steve Campbell and Chris Mc Gillan, for an amazing performance with fantastic sound. With over 60 musicians performing at once the audience was engulfed with music that was thrilling and inspiring.

On Friday St Michaels performed a concert at St. Josephs School, bringing the local students a fun filled finale to their school term.   Friday night the St Michaels students gathered at the Lincoln Hotel Sarin’s Bar to perform a farewell concert. In addition to the String Quartet and Big and Super bands, individual performer, Hannah Campbell sang some songs that she had written.  

The students and staff enjoyed their time in Port Lincoln and staff noted that Port Lincoln is “friendly and beautiful”. An open invitation was extended to the Port Lincoln City Band to visit St Michaels School in Victoria and combine again in concert.

The Port Lincoln City Band would like to thank the PL High School for participating and for the use of their hall. Thankyou, also, to the Salvation Army members who attended the concert and accepted donations at the door.

Of course the biggest thankyou must go to the St Michaels Grammar School students and staff for travelling such a long distance to perform in Pt Lincoln. All participants and audience members thoroughly enjoyed the music, and the school students were well behaved and wonderful representatives for their school.

The visit from SMGS has linked well into the City Band’s recently formed vision and sets the ball rolling for upcoming activities planned by the City Band.

The Port Lincoln City Band’s aim is to provide enjoyable experiences for its members and community through performances and development opportunities. By joining with St Michael’s school band and sharing them with the local schools they can say they are achieving their goal.

 The Port Lincoln City Band aims to encourage students to continue their music beyond their schooling years and provides an outlet for any musician returning to music after a break. Activities, such as joining with visiting bands, are just one way of achieving that goal.

The PLCB also provides a Learners band that encourages young and old to join, and will offer use of band instruments to those who do not have their own or cannot afford to hire or buy their own.

PLCB Secretary, Valerie Staunton, says “by sharing our resources with the schools we hope to encourage music students to keep playing once they leave school. We want to create and maintain pathways for musicians to continue playing where ever they may go”

Anyone interested in joining the City Band can come to rehearsals on Monday nights at the rear of the Civic Hall, Washington Street entrance, upstairs in the Studio (above the Media Room). Rehearsals are held 7.30pm every Monday night for 2 hours and are run by Music Director Michael Hester.

Brass, woodwind, string and percussion instrumentalists are welcome to join. The band is a fun environment to learn and play in, for men and women, young and old.

a video of the City Band playing one of their concert pieces, “Coolsville,” can be seen and heard on You Tube.

Port Lincoln City Band sets sights on the future.

Vision for the Port Lincoln City Band has been formed.

A great turnout provided for a successful outcome at the Port Lincoln City Band Planning day on Saturday 23^rd May. The Planning day was held to provide members, family and friends of the City Band to have an opportunity to have input into the future direction of the band. The goal of the day was to create a shared vision for the band, and set in place some planning to achieve that vision.  The day was facilitated by Sue Olsen, a non biased third party, to ensure smooth and efficient movement of the day.

Sue Olsen said, “The degree of involvement was excellent and the people felt comfortable in expressing their views. The process is useful for the committee to get a direction for the future.”

The Planning Day process allowed for all participants to have an input which proved to be highly valuable to setting the vision and goals. The 14 participants that included new and long standing band members, committee members, a community representative and family member helped establish a number of goals and strategies for the Band.

The day showed the committee members that they were on the right track according to the priorities identified, and also gave some solid direction to overcoming some obstacles.

The vision statement for the City Band that resulted from the planning day is “The Port Lincoln City Band promotes enjoyable experiences for its members and the community through a variety of musical performances and development opportunities.”

Some of the goals for the band include;

• Playing a variety of music styles to reach the interests of the members & community
• Being active in the community through performances and other opportunities.
• Providing enjoyable experiences/ fun for the members & community
• Providing opportunities to improve skills (playing and other)
• Updating uniforms
• Relocating to an accessible venue

Some strategies have been identified, by those who attended and those who could not attend but submitted their suggestions in writing. 

Vice President, Ann Staunton said "It's exciting to have a vision and some goals to work towards and we now feel 'ownership' of these goals.  I look forward to an even greater spirit of teamwork amongst the members."

The planning day is the first step to further planning and achievement of goals, and has provided members with the sense of ownership of the band, increasing their motivation and interest in keeping the band growing and improving.

Band rehearsals will continue to be held at the rear of the Civic Hall on Monday nights from 7.30pm to 9.30pm under the direction of Michael Hester.  The Learner’s Band continues to run on Monday nights from 6pm to 7pm under the direction of the Deputy, Ian Isaac and assisted by City Band members.  The Learner’s band currently has 5 members, Lucas on trumpet, John on Horn, Mary and Leonie on percussion, and Kristen on saxophone.  The Learner’s band is open to all ages and abilities, from never playing or reading music to some experience playing and reading. The Learner’s Band is a low cost, one hour lesson, which can help refresh long ago learned lessons or help develop new skills in music.  The City Band has some instruments available for use included in the price of $5 per week for Learner’s Band.

The City Band is open to all musicians that can play brass, woodwind, percussion, strings and keys. As the goals have been set to play a variety of music, all instrumentalists should enjoy playing with the City Band. The rehearsals are a fun and relaxed learning environment, led my Michael Hester. Michael has many years experience teaching music in the schools and privately and has helped improve the skill level of current musicians greatly since he first joined the band in October 2008.

The City Band has received funding from the City Council 08/09 budget to assist with projects and ongoing expenses. The Band has already requested an increase in the funding to assist with the upgrade of uniforms and other expenses that are necessary to facilitate growth, recruitment and promotion.

Upcoming events already planned for the City Band, that are inline with the new vision statement and goals set, include a combined workshops and Concert with visiting and local school bands. St Michaels Grammar School Band, from Victoria and the Port Lincoln High School Band will join with the City Band to perform a concert. This concert is planned to be held on Thursday the 2^nd of June at the High School Hall with proceeds to go to charity.

October long weekend (3^rd to 5^th) aims to be another exciting time for the City Band and the community, with Dr Kevin Cameron again visiting Port Lincoln to conduct workshops with the City Band, local and school musicians with the assistance of Principle Players from the Unley Band.

Unley Band recently travelled to Paris, France to perform the music for the ANZAC day service and march to the Arch De Triomphe and came 2^nd in the National Competitions in Sydney on their way to France. The Principle players will be able to assist sections of the band offering their expertise and high level of skill.