Hundreds of care home residents across County Durham are going to be treated to special musical performances as part of this month’s Durham Brass Festival.
Ensembles from ten County Durham bands will be giving performances in 20 care homes across the county on Sunday 20 July through Durham Brass’s Sound of Sunday programme, which is part of the Durham County Council event’s drive towards maximising audience access to musical performances and ensuring it has a presence right across the area.
The Sound of Sunday project was successfully trialled last year and is now being extended to cover 16 different towns and villages with the help of the County Durham-headquartered Banks Group, which is one of the festival’s lead sponsors.
The project will also see other care home residents being welcomed into schools to enjoy performances there, while a new mentoring project between Easington Brass Band and East Durham Schools has also been launched.
The annual Durham Brass Festival returns to the city – and the county’s towns and villages – on Sunday 13 July, promising a feast of song and dance at all manner of venues over the course of eight days until Sunday 20 July.
The Durham County Council event, which is supported by Arts Council England, will see performances on the streets of Durham, at parks, inside historic and cultural venues, in care homes and schools – and even on boats.
Cllr Lyndsey Fox, Durham County Council’s Cabinet member for economy and partnerships, says: “This is a real passion project for the Brass Festival team, and we’re excited to be extending it as part of this year’s festival with the Banks Group’s backing.
“Many of the people the bands will be playing for will have deep-seated memories of hearing brass band music being practiced and performed in their communities on Sunday afternoons throughout their lives.
“Music has the power to take us to different times and places, and we hope that the memories these performances stir will have a positive impact on our audience members’ well-being in each location.”
The Banks Group is a long-term supporter of brass band music throughout North East England and is funding the festival’s schools programme, which sees street bands delivering interactive performances in schools across County Durham to over 15,000 children and young people.
Banks is also the sponsor of the festival’s main afternoon concert on Sunday 20 July, which will see the Fairey Band giving a unique audio/visual performance of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition at Durham’s Gala Theatre, a Durham County Council venue.
Kate Culverhouse, community relations manager at the Banks Group, adds: “We’re proud to be once again supporting this amazing festival and to be helping the organisers take brass band music out to people in every corner of our home county who might not otherwise have the chance to enjoy it.”
For further information on the Sound of Sunday project, and on the full Durham Brass Festival programme, visit https://brassfestival.co.uk/