Community band and chorus collaborate for remembrance-themed concert in Chilliwack

An upcoming concert in Chilliwack will focus on wartime songs leading up to Remembrance Day.

The Chilliwack Community Band and Philomusica Chorus are coming together for a remembrance-themed commemorative concert at Sardis Secondary School on Nov. 3.

“I’m thinking a lot of people will be interested in coming out… as a prelude to Nov. 11,” said Kevin Biegel, artistic director of the Chilliwack Community Band.

It will be an evening to remember those who have fought and died in war, and those who are currently fighting. But it’s also to remember those who died in residential schools, he added.

The band and chorus will be “bridging” the remembrance theme, Biegel said.

He, along with Philomusica Chorus director Paula Quick, both said they’ve missed performing in front of a live audience.

“We’re excited to play and get together. There’s a lot of enthusiasm just to get back at it again,” Biegel said.

“There’s something about the adrenalin,” Quick added.

She is a member of both the chorus and the band, so she will going back and forth between conducting the chorus and playing the French horn with the band.

Songs folks will hear, to name a few, include White Cliffs of Dover and We’ll Meet Again performed by both the band and chorus together, Edelweiss by Rodgers and Hammerstein (band only), After the War by Paul Grosse and David Keele (chorus only).

Biegel joined the community band in January and has been successful in getting young members to join.

“My vision for a concert band is to mix generations,” he said.

Years ago, the community band was an “older” band, Biegel said. But now, students from Sardis Secondary have joined and are playing alongside seniors.

Quick, who’s one of the senior band members, said it’s “delightful” to be playing with the young musicians, and also added it’s exciting that the band has percussion.

“It’s so much easier to play when you’ve got a rhythm section,” she said. “Some of these pieces are quite colourful from a percussion point of view. They have snare, they’ve got bass drum, they’ve got timpani, chimes and bells, too.”

The Remembrance Day-themed concert by the Chilliwack Community Band and Philomusica Chorus takes place Thursday, Nov. 3 at Sardis Secondary School at 7 p.m. The concert will be about one hour long. Admission is by donation.

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