Life is a Musical
Musicals have always been in Westgate Concert Band’s blood.
In 1986, Westgate Concert Band began an extended collaboration with Tullamarine Primary School to provide the accompaniment to their yearly musical performances. For the band members who chose to be involved, their Sunday afternoon rehearsals were richly rewarded with a great pit orchestra experience, working with an appreciative and talented cast, and school community.
“So, members of band took part in that… [and] that shows how much progress they made since they joined the band since that was one of our ambitions, Roy and I, to present the band with some more difficult music than they were playing at school and gradually move on from there. And that’s how it worked. And they had to do the job or otherwise I wouldn’t have asked them.”
“I remember the first time we drove carloads of cast kids across to Braybrook to have their first Sunday rehearsal with the Band – they were awestruck. Band members, under the baton of the wonderful Roy Hamilton, were so supportive in helping the kids transition from a rehearsal tape (thanks to Mr Steve Jones) to the magical sound they would perform with over three nights of production. That was the beginning of an annual partnership that continued over the next twenty-one years.”
Westgate Concert Band’s love of Broadway continued unabated for the next decade, with a new and evermore elaborate concert format: ‘Broadway and Beyond”. Among Westgate Concert Band’s talented instrumentalists hide gifted vocalists. Increasingly over the years, these individuals have been brought forward to feature in concert items, always to great applause. Westgate gradually built up its vocal library and invited further singers as ‘friends of the band’ to join us and add variety to our performances. Given our audience’s appreciation for these songs, in the early 2000s Westgate Concert Band delivered our first all vocal concert, ‘An afternoon of Music and Song’, unearthing a swath of talent and eagerness for vocal pieces.
In 2003, Westgate Concert Band made a bold move: we did away with the afternoon variety performance and risked a new concert format revolving around our vocalists. The natural direction for this transformation was ‘Broadway’ with its popular tunes, story-telling capacity and musical scores that would continue to challenge our players. Moving to a theatre setting also enabled us to use lighting and audio-visual effects to take our audience’s experience to new heights.
“Welcome to Westgate Concert Band’s production of Broadway and Beyond! For Westgate, tonight’s program constitutes an exciting new approach to concert performance. In the Broadway and Beyond program the band as an ensemble is not the feature. Instead the focus is on the singers and dancers, with the band providing the musical backdrop… Tonight’s program also provides the opportunity for band members to display musical talents beyond the instrumental. Throughout the program band members will be setting aside their Horns, Flutes, Clarinets, Drumsticks and Cello, to step out from behind the music stand and into the spotlight.”
Westgate Concert Band delivered a Broadway and Beyond concert every year from 2003 to 2016. With each performance we developed our concept further, moving to tell abridged stories from musicals through a select collection of favourite tunes, along with grander props and costumes to support the spectacle. We grew our vocal talent too, assembling a brilliant cast, who put in extra hours at cast rehearsals and became a true extension of the band.
In order to undertake a performance of this magnitude, Westgate Concert Band heavily relied on assistance from our ‘friends of the band’. In addition to our tremendous Front of House crew, our ‘friends of the band’ and band members themselves found themselves as ushers, follow-spot operators, makeup artists, audio-visual operators, MCs, managing ticket sales, preparing detailed programs, organising raffle prizes and countless other tasks. Westgate Concert Band extends our greatest thanks to these behind-the-scenes helpers without whom Broadway and Beyond would not have been the success it was.
While delivering a concert of vocal Broadway items surely entertained our audiences and increased Westgate Concert Band’s musical scope, we did not forget our symphonic roots. The ‘Beyond’ element of Broadway and Beyond became an opportunity to re-envision some of our favourite concert band items, making use of the lighting and audio-visual features available to us. These pieces threw a light on the Band, allowing us to feature instrumentalist(s) and perform for the devoted audience members who had come to support the band members themselves.
Some of our most beloved highlights include those…
Featuring instrumental soloists:
‘Concerto for Clarinet’ (clarinet; 2004)
‘Theme from Schindler’s List’ (violin; 2004)
‘Bolero’ (various; 2005)
‘Africa: Ceremony, Song and Ritual’ (percussion; 2008)
…‘The Typewriter’ (typewriter; 2013)
Accompanied by slide shows:
‘Dusk’ accompanied by a sunset images (2006)
‘An American in Paris’ with original black and white photography of the city (2014)
And complemented with dramatic readings:
‘The Raven’ with a recital of the famous poem that inspired the piece (2010)
Broadway and Beyond reinvigorated Westgate Concert Band’s calendar of events. For dress rehearsals (yes, we had those!) and on performance evenings, band and cast alike were ushered through the stage door and sequestered into the green room, creating a palpable atmosphere of excitement and anticipation for the show ahead. Gone were our white shirts - the band was dressed to impress in all black… and it helped us melt into the background too. The show itself pushed the band to new levels. These performances were longer than our typical concerts, requiring us to build our stamina to ensure our playing was as energised at the end as when we began. Upon successful delivery of the show, we would celebrate with an after party to congratulate ourselves on the mammoth effort put in and stunning performance delivered.
Westgate Concert Band held each of their Broadway and Beyond concerts at the Wyndham Cultural Centre in Werribee. We drew a respectable crowd into the 477-seat theatre and made extensive use of the theatre’s state-of-the-art audio and lighting systems, and projection screen too. The staff were always fantastic to work with and with their expert skills, they helped Westgate deliver truly professional performances. Westgate Concert Band extends its deepest thanks to all the staff that supported us our in Broadway and Beyond concerts.