About the band

Cape Town Concert Brass is a collection of amateur musicians configured as a traditional English Brass Band.  Our repertoire varies from classical to jazz to arrangements of popular tunes.  The band members themselves have a variety of day-time jobs - including engineers, pharmacists, an actuary, a surgeon, students, academics, accountants, IT specialists, corporate trainers, a wine maker, an executive of a brewery, a geologist...

We aim to play at least 12 concerts per year; regulars now include the Bastille Day festivities in Franschhoek, the Whale Festival in Hermanus and Carols-by-Candlelight at Kirstenbosch Gardens.

History

The Band has its origins in the school brass bands of which many of the players were a part. Two major sources of our current players were the Grey High School band from Port Elizabeth and the Bishops Brass Band. These two bands were founded by Robert Selly and Graham Coote respectively, and the influence of these two titans of the brass playing genre cannot be over-estimated.

In the 1980s various former members of the Bishops Brass Band clubbed together to form the Bishops Brass Society. This experiment resulted in a number of concerts and gave the members at the time an avenue for musical expression. The Society went into hibernation in the late 1980s.

In late-1999 some of the former members of the Brass Society got together to revive their interest in playing together as a Brass Band. This revival was inspired by the movie "Brassed Off", which reminded many of us of the joy of the playing music whatever good or bad things may happen in our lives. Some changes were needed from the previous experiment. Clearly the band needed to draw membership from a wide range of people who shared a love of music and strong organisational skills were required. The band had to operate on strictly amateur lines (even though we have fostered and cherished good friendships with many excellent professional musicians).

In 2000 Cape Town Concert Brass emerged to perform concerts under the baton of Graham Coote. The band slowly built its repertoire as players rediscovered their embouchure and blew cobwebs out of ancient horns. From amusing but inauspicious re-beginnings we started to play music of which we were proud, including a couple of memorable performances in the Cape Town city hall.

In 2003 the band was seriously affected when Graham Coote suffered a stroke. Graham's illness has kept him out of music since then and we had to come to terms with a significant loss of musical direction. We still keep in touch Graham and occasionally see him at concerts. Those of us who have known him and his prodigious musical prowess cannot overstate the impact that he has had on our lives.

One of our trombone players, Derek Sadler, courageously took up the baton until we were able to recruit a new conductor. This was remarkably achieved when John Walton kindly agreed to lead us for a particular concert that we had lined up. John's expectation was of a temporary assignment, an expectation in which he was sorely mistaken. Under John's expert guidance the band has thrived, growing in both membership numbers and proficiency.

Today Cape Town Concert Brass is capable of putting out a full brass band for each concert that it accepts. Many parts are covered by more than one player. We continue to aim for excellence and want to measure ourselves against the many excellent brass bands whose work we have admired over the years.

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