If you’re not careful, brass banding can get a bit formulaic. You trundle along with the usual cycle of contests, summer fetes, Christmas carolling and bandstand performances, staying in your comfort zone in terms of music, venues and audiences.

Every so often though, you need to mix things up a bit, and responsibility for keeping band life interesting for members and supporters falls to the combination of committee and musical director.

At a committee meeting in February 2018, the scope for a ‘feature concert’ was raised. Previous feature concerts from LGB had featured such esteemed soloists as trombonist Gordon Campbell, and this time we were keen to work with a local choir, which would present a new challenge for the band and something new and different for our audience.

Enter the Concentus Choir, a talented 100 strong choir from the Eastbourne area. Concentus are directed by Adrian White – the nephew of Arthur Lucas, a former MD of LGB Brass in whose name our ‘Most Improved Player’ is awarded every year. This connection was too good an opportunity to miss, so introductions were made and the seed of an idea for a joint concert started to germinate…

Fast forward to June this year, and we joined Concentus for their two summer performances – in Seaford and Eastbourne on 15 and 22 June. It was, it’s fair to say, a roaring success. The quality of music at these two events was remarkable, and feedback from the audience was almost universally glowing.

We would like to thank Concentus for having us, and allowing us to share the stage at one of the biggest events in their calendar. The choir were so warm hearted and generous, and made us feel extremely welcome (especially at the ‘after show parties’!). We wish them all the best for future concerts and sincerely hope to work with them again in future.

You can find videos and photos of these wonderful concerts on our Facebook page.