Banding Together

Banding Together is an annual summer concertina band weekend arranged by J25 Concertina Band. It is aimed at competent and advanced players of English concertina who enjoy band playing and wish to enhance their skills. Banding Together always engages a professional musician who is active in directing bands of other instruments to direct the music for the weekend. These guest conductors are NOT concertina players but experts in bandsman-ship and musician-ship. We ask them to take us into the atomic level of ensemble playing to become the best we can be – and have great fun in the process.

Our other weekend is in December – the Banding Together Christmas House Party. As the name suggests, it is full of Christmassy music, fun and games! Below is a list of repertoire we have attempted, a few are links to You Tube slide shows.

Summer 2023 The next Banding Together weekend will be 14-16 July 2023 at Halsway Manor

Christmas 2022 Conductor Stuart Bower

  • Boars Head Carol (Trad arr Claire Wren)
  • Christmas Concerto (Corelli)
  • Everlasting Light (Salvation Army Book)
  • O Holy Night (Salvation Army Book)
  • Merry Christmas March (John Higgins trs Barrie Johnson)
  • Sleigh Ride (Leroy Anderson)
  • Somerset Wassail (Trad)

Ralph Vaughan Williams 150th Aniversary Day. Conductor Barrie Johnson

  • Folk Song Suite (Banding Together arrangement)
  • Bushes and Briars (SqueezEast arrangement)
  • Rhosymedre (Hawkwood arrangement)

Summer 2022 Conductor Paul Fisher

  • America from West Side Story (Bernstein arr Michael Brown adpt Claire Wren)
  • Balloons Over Bristol (Claire Wren)
  • Clog Dance (John Marcangelo)
  • Holst Second Suite in F Major (Gustav Holst arr Sydney Herbert)
  • Tango A Mollissa (A Jarvela arr Claire Wren)
  • Cuando (Rigual / Martinoli arr Robert Ramskill adpt Claire Wren)
  • Dark Island (Maclachlan arr Claire Wren)

Christmas 2021 Conductors Barrie Johnson and Adrian Harvey

  • Mozat’sToy Symphony for Concertina Band (arr Claire Wren)
  • And the Waltz Goes On (Anthony Hopkins)
  • Gabriel’s Oboe (Ennio Morricone arr Robert Longfield adpt Claire Wren)
  • The Entertainer (Matt Kingston)
  • Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer (Salvation Army Book)
  • Everlasting Light (Salvation Army Book)
  • A Starry Night (Salvation Army Book)
  • Yuletide Rag

Summer 2021 Conductor Stuart Bower

  • A Tick in the Box (Claire Wren)
  • Brass Polka (Joseph Horovitz)
  • Portsmouth Chimes
  • Red Red Rose (Traditional Scottish, arr Claire Wren)
  • Rubank March (From flute study book published by Rubank, arr Claire Wren)
  • English Folk Song Suite (Vaughan Williams)

2019 Conductor Barrie Johnson

  • Viktor’s Tale (John Williams, trs Barrie Johnson)
  • Gabriel’s Oboe (Ennio Morricone, arr Robert Longford, adpt Claire Wren)
  • Gota
  • Waltz from Masquerade Suite (Aram Khachaturian)
  • The Langley March (Claire Wren)

2018 Christmas Event. Conductor Claire Wren

  • Christmas Cheer (arr Claire Wren)
  • Christmas Concerto (Coreli)
  • Jingle Bell Samba
  • Sleigh Ride (arr Claire Wren)

2018 Summer Event. Conductor Colin Touchin

  • Dance Perpetual (Colin Touchin)
  • Floral Dance (Katie Moss, arr Claire Wren)
  • Flying (rehearsal) (Colin Touchin)
  • It Ain’t Necessarily So (George Gershwin, arr Philip Evry)
  • Toy Symphony (Mozart, arr Claire Wren) Toy Symphony

2017 Conductor Jim Stretton

2016 Conductor Adrian Harvey

2015 Conductor John Hammonds

2014 Conductor Bob Spiller

  • The Langley March
  • Vaughan Williams Folk Song Suite
  • Fascinating Rhythm
  • Spanopedie
  • The Ringwood Tree

2013 Conductor Martin Wills