For formal concerts, men wear black tuxedos with white shirts, black ties, black socks and black shoes. Women wear black skirts or pants, black shirts, and black shoes.
For our more informal concerts, the band wears our blue band polo shirts and khaki shorts, or whatever pants or shorts the conductor or band president designates. If we have a special holiday concert, such as the Halloween concert, we may dress in costume. For Christmas concerts, we have been known to wear a Santa hat or reindeer antlers to get into the holiday spirit.
Yes, with the exception of a small break after our last Christmas concert until after the first week or so after New Year’s.
We rehearse from 7:30PM until 9:30PM on Thursday evenings at Decatur First United Methodist Church located at 300 East Ponce de Leon Avenue, Decatur, GA, 30030. We rehearse downstairs in the Fellowship Hall. The parking lot is around the back of the church. There will be a small gated garden to your right under a breezeway; go in through the double doors next to the garden. Follow the hallway to the end, take a right, the Fellowship hall is on the left. You should hear people warming up.
If you are a college musician home for the summer, or a recently graduated or rising senior high school musician, you could be reasonably expected to be able to play our summer program without undue difficulty. In the Summer we concentrate on having a good time with the music and the material tends toward pops and light classical. The big event is July 4th with an audience of about 5,000. We usually waive the audition requirement for summer musicians but we do ask for experienced players who can perform the music we are programming. We do limit numbers in the sections so call early if you are seriously interested in a spot, particularly in the large sections.
While we do look for fairly advanced musical skills, we realize that time spent away from music can dull the edge somewhat. Our audition is not to be feared. We merely screen for the ability to play in keys, with reasonable intonation and reading ability approximately at the level of music the band usually performs. New players are invited to sit in for several rehearsals prior to auditioning to help get the notes under their fingers and see what we are about. It should be noted, however that the audition does screen for good musical training after the prospective new member has had some time to get back into playing. We have found that the rust usually comes off quickly.
The Callanwolde Concert Band is for the musically experienced adult with fairly extensive instrumental training. We do understand that for some people it has been a while, with time out for education, professions, children, you name it. Most of our members played in both high school and college bands. Many received individual instruction on their respective instruments and a majority at least considered a career in music, either in performance or education. Most have entered careers in other fields and now consider music to be a serious hobby. In general terms, if you played in a good high school or college band, you will have no problem playing with us.
The band members agree that one of the worst things about being away from music is missing the company of fellow musicians. With this in mind the Callanwolde Concert Band exists to continue the musical performance opportunities that we enjoyed in school as well as the fun and camaraderie that we all loved so much.
