Friary Brass warmed up for its Gala Concert appearance at the UniBrass Championships in Sheffield on the weekend with an enthusiastically received run-out to brass band fans at Hartley Wintney in Hampshire.
Dating back to 1898 in the arts and crafts architectural style, the concert hall venue has been restored in wonderful fashion and now holds regular events and concerts.
The band was originally to have performed there in the summer of last year, but due to Covid-19 it was postponed.
Warm welcome
However, a large audience gave a warm and enthusiastic welcome to the band for a concert of easy listening, wide ranging repertoire, with an invite to return next year.
Speaking about the concert, the Victoria Hall Chairman Edward Woods told 4BR: "We all enjoyed such an uplifting performance, with wonderful variety and great soloists. We offered a very big thank you to a very professional group of musicians."
Appreciative
In response, Friary Band chairperson, Nigel Stevens added: "It was a delight to play for such an enthusiastic and appreciative audience, most of whom had not heard the band before.
We are very keen to return and it also gave us an ideal opportunity to run out part of our programme for Saturday's UniBrass Gala Concert, which we're also looking forward to."
