Another successful brass band concert

Brass on the Grass - featuring Canberra Brass musicians

Spring weather in the nation's capital seems to be becoming a little more difficult to predict. However, Sunday last proved to be fairly close to perfection for our 12th brass band concert event, now fondly referred to as Brass on the Grass. A little more sunshine would have topped off the day.

The concert is the Hall Heritage Centre's main fund-raising event and thanks to the visitors who came with cash and card it was a great success. The Centre does not receive any government funding so we rely on events like these and money from various heritage and infrastructure grants that we apply for on an annual basis to continue our important work.

The brass band all began in 1984 when four chaps who lived and worked in Hall got together to make music. The group grew to become known as Hall Village Brass Band and it became well-known as a community based band which played at festivals and parades They went on to win the 1994 National Federation Festival competition in Corowa, judged the festival's most entertaining band. Over the years the band grew both in numbers and stature within the national brass band community, winning the National Band Championships B Grade Brass category in 2002.

Today the group is known as Canberra Brass Inc. with 3 main bands: Canberra Brass, Victoria Street Brass (named after the main street in the village) and a newly established Training Band which gave its first public performance on Sunday, under the baton of Gypsy Cook.

The guest band on Sunday was the Hoskinstown Kitchen Jam - a group of amateur musicians who played
a mixture of bluegrass, Australian folk and Irish music.