Family, friends and even a fewer strangers packed the Quilchena Golf Course clubhouse for the Nicola Valley Community Band’s 18th Annual ‘Friday with Friends’ spring concert and dinner.
The lovely new facility, built by local contractor Rick Mettler, proved to be a wonderful setting for a night of delightful music and delicious food.
“The venue was beautiful and acoustically very sound,” said community band director Colin Kerridge.
“The positive energy from the audience was infectious, and helped us to play a lively performance,” Kerridge added.
Lively indeed. The community band was in fine form as they opened with Gonna Fly Now (the theme song from the movie Rocky) and closed in equally rousing fashion with composer Harold L. Walters tried-and-true Instant Concert.
The two-set performance had an impressive and diverse playlist that included the up-tempo Sam Cooke classic Twisting the Night Away, Hoagy Carmichael’s sultry Georgia On My Mind along with selections from notable stage and screen musicals My Fair Lady and Mary Poppins.
Other memorable numbers on this most pleasant of evenings included Brian Balmages’ Appalachian-toned Blue Ridge Reel, new band favorite Over the Stone by Larry Neeck, and George Thorogood’s irreverent B-b-b-ad to the Bone.
The current Nicola Valley Community Band is made up of approximately 19 members, ranging in age from 14 to 78. It includes five MSS recruits and two recent high school graduates.
New members to the community band are always welcome. Interested individuals can contact James Clark at 250-378-9894 for more information.
