For the Big Band and Wind Band, first order of business this\nyear was the Ballroom Society\u2019s annual Charity Showcase in collaboration with\nLUDanS, LU Theatre Group and more. The Big Band served as accompaniment for the\nStrictly Come Dancing<\/em> themed first half, also playing \u2018Cry Me a River\u2019\nalongside soloist Isha Robbie as well as \u2018Hot Toddy\u2019, which featured clapping\nrather than playing from the (slightly disgruntled) sax section. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After the interval came Wind Band, providing the music for the\nmini musical, which this year was Grease<\/em>! With music arranged by the\nensemble\u2019s own Alex Hardgrave and Chris Holloway, it was a fantastic\nperformance by everyone involved, whether acting, singing or playing. Then, to\nclose the show, another ULMS performance, this time by the Dance Band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All money raised went\nto Morecombe Bay Food Bank and Cancer Research UK, so thank you to everyone who\ngot involved to help these important causes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plenty of excitement for the Brass Band this term! The band\nwent to compete at the 10th annual UniBrass competition in Bangor on the 8th February.\nUniBrass is a national competition where university brass bands come together\nat a host university to compete in an entertainment contest across two\nsections: Shield and Trophy. They claimed 5th in the Shield section for their\nperformance, featuring a range of pieces from Broadway musicals including Cats<\/em>,\nMiss Saigon<\/em> and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang<\/em>. Congratulations to them\nand their conductors, Henry Lay and Alex Hardgrave! <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018We were all extremely happy with our placing and feel we played the best we could! It was also a great time for members to get to know each other better and strengthen the band<\/em>.’<\/p>Lizzy Morritt, Brass Band Representative.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The Annual General Meeting for ULMS took place on 12th<\/sup>\nFebruary, kicking off (amongst other things) hustings for the 2020\/21\nCommittee! More on this to follow in subsequent blogs\u2026 Thank you to everyone who\nattended and voted, and congratulations to our new Committee members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Concerto Concert, held in the Chaplaincy, boasted a huge\nvariety of music and performances from the Flute, Clarinet and Chamber Choirs\nas well as the main Choir, featuring soloists Isha Robbie and Lucy Colbourne.\nBut \u2013 this being the Concerto Concert \u2013 the main attractions were the Orchestra\nand String Orchestra. Congratulations to soloists Emily Hinks, who played the\nthird movement of Mozart\u2019s Flute Concerto No.2 and Louis Kirkman, who played\nthe first movement of Violin Concerto No.4 by Haydn, for their fantastic\nperformances!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Big Band have had a busy term, travelling to Sunderland\nto compete against other university and professional Big Bands at the Great\nNorth Jazz Festival. There, they played \u2018Strike up the Band\u2019, \u2018In the Mood\u2019, \u2018Skyfall\u2019\nand \u2018Signed Sealed Delivered\u2019 to great response! Judges were particularly\ncomplimentary about the band\u2019s musicality and section work, as well as the strong\nsolos by Isha Robbie, Thom Bull, Toby Smith, Jamie Payne and Alex Warwick. Well\ndone to them and the band!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Brass and Wind Bands were back in action on 7th<\/sup> March. The Brass Band moved through a varied programme of music, starting with a selection of Broadway hits including \u2018Memory\u2019 from Cats<\/em>, featuring a solo by Julian Shield. They then moved to a march named after the idyllic Barnard Castle and some traditional Welsh folk music: \u2018David of the White Rock\u2019, with soloist Rebecca Jex. For their final piece, \u2018Floral Dance\u2019, the Brass Band were joined by 2019 graduate and former ULMS member Chris Holloway on drums: a brilliant end to a brilliant set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next came the Wind Band with contemporary music from films Stardust<\/em> and Star Wars<\/em>, as well as the gorgeous \u2018October\u2019 by Eric Whitacre. They also played some more traditional classical music such as Holst\u2019s Second Suite in F; and the iconic prelude to \u2018Carmen\u2019 by Bizet, arranged for the band by conductor Matt Hall. They finished strongly with an ensemble favourite: \u2018Critical Mass\u2019, by Todd Stalter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lent Term has seen three masterclasses take place: Brass Band, Wind Band and Conducting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The brass masterclass took place two weeks before our trip to the Unibrass Competition. It was led by Richard Wilton, the conductor of the Championship section Shepherd Group Brass Band in York. He conducted various tonguing and breathing exercise to help with technique and critiqued the pieces they were due to play in the contest, in order to tighten up loose ends. His masterclass was extremely useful and got a lot of positive feedback from numerous members of the band as well as the two conductors. It was his second masterclass with the university Brass Band and we are hoping to have him back again next year in preparation for Unibrass 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wind Band were also treated to a masterclass by the\ntrombonist, conductor, teacher and composer Adrian Taylor to prepare them for Wind\nand Brass in Concert. He gave some particularly useful advice on tuning\nproperly and blending together as a whole ensemble for players, and also helped\nthe technique of the two conductors. Overall, his visit was considered very\nbeneficial in the run up to the concert and Wind Band hopes to see more visits\nlike this in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, we welcomed back singing teacher and conductor Don Gillthorpe who came in on March 12th<\/sup> to give a conducting masterclass, splitting his time between Choir and Orchestra. Giving advice on posture, how to hold the baton and how clear their beats were, Don also gave individual feedback on technique and improving confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018I thoroughly enjoyed it and found his comments helpful for improving my technique! Hopefully I\u2019ll get chance to put them to use when we get back to rehearsals.\u2019 <\/em><\/p>Tia Arnold, Orchestra Conductor.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n ULMS\u2019 small groups have also been out and about performing throughout Lent Term. The Clarinet, Flute and Chamber Choirs could be seen playing at Lancaster Arts events in the Great Hall as well as the University\u2019s Concerto Concert, while Lancaster Brewery was graced by the presence of our Inglourious Brassterds for two gigs at its very first Fr\u00fchlingsfest event in February. They also played at the final of Bailrigg FM\u2019s Battle of the Bands; further congratulations are in order for another of our small groups, the Dalton Collective, for making it to the final of this competition! Members of the society also had the opportunity to see all of the small groups perform on March 4th<\/sup> in the Small Groups Showcase, which was a great night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lent Term has also seen the establishment of a brand new small group: we\u2019d like to welcome the Barbershop group! Looking forward to seeing how it develops when we return to Lancaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As ever, ULMS is indebted to our social secretaries, formerly\nLouise Frankland and Amaia Imaz Blanco, now Isha Robbie and George Allin, for organising\na variety of events for the society to enjoy. Kicking off strong with bowling\nand Wetherspoons, throughout the term we have also had a classic quiz night\nhosted by the iconic Sean Barlow, a games night, karaoke and two college bar\ncrawls to celebrate the Committee handover and St. Patrick\u2019s Day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lent term has also seen Project Teach Music continue to grow\nwith the purchase of new music. A couple of final pieces of news \u2013 and let\u2019s\nface it, the ones you\u2019ve all been waiting for: we have purchased some new\nstands (yay!), and we have a brand-new mascot! We are pleased to introduce\nRONald Quack Hylton, a new companion for Roger (who is now safely back with the\nsociety after his mystery hiatus).<\/p>\n\n\n\n ULMS would like to thank everyone who has come out to see us\nthis term and the masterclass instructors for all of their help. Thanks also to\nall of our ensemble conductors, the 2019\/20 Committee for all of their hard\nwork over the past year, and to the new 2020\/21 Committee. Finally, thank you\nto everyone in the society! It\u2019s been a fantastic term and we couldn\u2019t have\ndone it without you. We\u2019re not quite sure what\u2019s in store over the coming\nmonths, but hope to see everyone soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stay well and thanks for reading!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well, the new decade has begun with a bang, and despite a fair dose of turbulence ULMS has had a busy and successful Lent Term. Here\u2019s a look back on what the society got up to over those 9 weeks. 1st February: Charity Showcase For the Big Band and Wind Band, first order of business […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ulms.org.uk\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/Feature-Photo-1-Concertoa.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ulms.org.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ulms.org.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ulms.org.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ulms.org.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ulms.org.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1741"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/ulms.org.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1798,"href":"https:\/\/ulms.org.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741\/revisions\/1798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ulms.org.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ulms.org.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ulms.org.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ulms.org.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}8th<\/sup> February: UniBrass<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ulms.org.uk\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/Unibrass-2.jpg\")
12th<\/sup> February: AGM and Hustings<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
22nd<\/sup> February: Concerto Concert<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ulms.org.uk\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/Violin-Concertoa-300x200.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ulms.org.uk\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/Orchestra-Concertoa-1024x682.jpg\")
29th<\/sup> February: Great North Big Band Jazz Festival<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ulms.org.uk\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/Big-Band-Jazz-Festival-1024x514.jpg\")
7th<\/sup> March: Wind and Brass in Concert<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ulms.org.uk\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/BB-Windbrass-soloa-1-683x1024.jpg\")
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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ulms.org.uk\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/WB-Windbrass-whole-3a-1024x427.jpg\")
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nMasterclasses<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Small Groups<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ulms.org.uk\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/Chamber-Concertoa-1024x682.jpg\")
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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>Socials<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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