Ensemble concert promises familiar fare

The Albany City Wind Ensemble will take to the stage at the Albany Baptist Church on Saturday, June 25, for their annual concert, Stage, Screen and All That Jazz.

The ACWE is a 40-piece concert band made up of musicians playing trumpets, saxophones, trombones, flutes, clarinets, horns and a menagerie of percussion instruments and has been performing for 12 years.

From action movie soundtracks to romance, Broadway hits and jazz favourites, the AWCE will be rolling out the red carpet in celebration of the very best of showbiz for their upcoming concert.

The ensemble will also be joined by the About Face Youth Choir.

Deputy bandmaster, Alan Burnfield will be among many talented musicians performing in the show.

A woodwind teacher and previous saxophone musician with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Burnfield came to Albany at the start of 2007 and has been a vibrant member of the ACWE saying he has been coming to the town for about 30 years, to the annual summer music camp at Camp Quaranup.

“For its size, Albany has an extraordinarily large and vibrant music scene and for many years it was a bit of a dream to settle — and then retire — here, and I consider myself very fortunate that I was able to do so,” he said.

Burnfield said once he finally got past the terror of performing live, he discovered the joys of sharing his love of music with people.

“I play with the Albany Sinfonia and the Albany Chamber Orchestra, as well as being deputy bandmaster with the Albany City Wind Ensemble,” he said.

“I joined ACWE partly to keep an eye on students, and partly because with so many school students finishing high school after years of playing, it’s important to support this outlet for their musical talents.”

Burnfield said some of his personal ACWE highlights have been the opening concerts for the Albany Entertainment Centre in 2010, the ACWE tour to Esperance in 2014, the Peter Watson Seniors’ Christmas Concerts and the looks on the faces of kids when they see, hear and play the instruments at the Cushion Concerts in Albany, Mt Barker and Denmark.

“Being asked to play the clarinet solo in Viktor’s Tale — music from the Tom Hanks film The Terminal was a major highlight, this is a very tricky piece, which kept me off the streets for several months while trying to master it,” he said.

“It’s also responsible for a few hundred of my grey hairs.”

Burnfield said audiences at their show can expect to hear some great moments from Broadway, Hollywood and TV, from the 20s jazz age, through Wile E. Coyote of the Roadrunner cartoons, to West Side Story and much more.

“You’ll also see the audio-visual skills of Cameron and Brent Findlay, who together have created some very memorable and humorous visual moments for the screen,” he said.