Hard rock and classical music will be included in the play list for the City of Orange Brass Band on Sunday.
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The band will perform its first monthly concert for the year at the Cook Park rotunda at 1pm before heading to Towac Park to entertain the crowd at the harness races at 3pm.
Acting band master Megan Hodsdon stepped into the temporary vacancy following the retirement of Leon Paix last year and added music of her own choosing in addition to the band’s repertoire of hymns and traditional brass band songs.
“I’ve been looking at a range of music and trying to find music that suits everybody, some modern stuff and some older style music,” Mrs Hodsdon said.
There’s a tendency for brass bands to stick to stuff written for brass bands, I like to do a lot more than that.
- Acting band master Megan Hodsdon
“It’s wonderful being able to choose the music and make it sound the way I want it to sound, not how someone else wants it to sound.
“It’s fun just to choose. There’s a tendency for brass bands to stick to stuff written for brass bands, I like to do a lot more than that.”
Among the new songs will be Hard Rock Hallelujah by Finnish rock band Lordi.
“I was the deputy band master already so when the band master left I took up the position until someone is permanently appointed,” Mrs Hodsdon said.
VIDEO: Lordi performing Hard Rock Hallelujah at Eurovision in 2006 ...
“There’s three of us who applied for the position and we are all doing trials at the moment.”
Mrs Hodsdon said a committee will hopefully select the new band master by mid-March.
However, she said the band will also get to have a say on who it prefers.
Mrs Hodsdon joined the City of Orange Brass Band in 1998 and along with conducting the band she plays tenor horn and French horn.
She said the junior band, made up of beginners, was “really enthusiastic” about the new songs but there were mixed opinions among musicians in the senior band.
There is also a training band for people who had not played music before.
After stopping for a Christmas break, the band resumed practices in the middle of January and its first performance of the year was at Cook Park on Australia Day.