Arts & Culture
19 May, 2026
Enjoy a feast of big band music in Bowral
Get set to enjoy an epic feast of concert band music this Sunday at the Bowral Memorial Hall, as the Southern Highlands Concert Band and the Wollondilly Community Band perform together as part of the inaugural ‘Festival of Bands.’
Get set to enjoy an epic feast of concert band music this Sunday at the Bowral Memorial Hall, as the Southern Highlands Concert Band and the Wollondilly Community Band perform together as part of the inaugural ‘Festival of Bands.’
“This will be the first time our two bands have collaborated together here in the Bowral Memorial Hall,” Southern Highlands Concert Band musical director Julian Paviour told The Southern Wire.
“It will certainly test the acoustics of the hall as well as fitting in our audience in as well!”
Both Mr. Paviour and Wollondilly Community Band musical director Heather Davies estimate that across the two bands there will be over 70 musicians performing.
“Southern Highlands Concert Band will be performing music written for concert bands from composers such as Alfred Reed, James Barnes, Robert E. Smith and even Australian composer Percy Grainger,” Mr. Paviour said.
“As the two bands together, we will be playing music from well-known composer George Gershwin and Gustav Holst’s Suite in E Flat.”
The Southern Highlands Concert Band are now in their 41st year of operation, having been first founded in 1985, and were then known as the Wingecarribee Community Band (WCB).
Mr. Paviour has served two terms as musical director in that time (1995 – 2005 and 2016 – present), and the band has rehearsed and played in the Bowral Memorial Hall as their base and have a membership of 40 players.
The Wollondilly Community Band (or the Wollondilly Community Music Association -WCMA - as they are now known) are based in Picton, and although they don’t have an illustrious long history like the SHCB, they started in April 2024 from a simple Facebook post, and have now grown to over 60 members, as well as a separate Youth Band.
The Wollondilly Community Band will have 42 of their band members performing on Sunday, four of whom they share members with at the SHCB.
Musical Director Heather Davies told The Southern Wire she is excited about performing alongside the SHCB.
“We’re really honoured to play with the Southern Highlands Concert Band,” she said.
“Compared to SHCB, we’re a relatively new band, and I felt that we could make a connection. Sunday will be an entire day of music making and forging new friendships – there will be rehearsals, then we’ll have lunch together and then perform at the concert.
“We almost feel like their ‘poor cousins’, but I’m sure we would love to return the favour of inviting the SHCB to the Wollondilly Performing Arts Centre (WPAC) at some point in the future if all goes well on Sunday.”
Ms. Davies described the pieces that her band will be performing on the day.
“With the Southern Highlands Concert Band, Brenden Millard, my associate conductor, will be conducting a modern piece called ‘Quad City Stomp’ by American composer Michael Sweeney, which contains a lot of percussion and atmospheric events with instruments such as tam-tams, nails in buckets and more,” she said.
“We will also play 5 other pieces including Robert E. Smith’s ‘Into the Storm’, James Barnes’ ‘Heatherwood Portrait’ (which is our NSW State Band Championships ‘test piece’), Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘My Favourite Things’, ‘Dream Song’ (which contains a piano solo) by Richard Sourcedo, and finally an ‘ABBA Gold Medley’ (which they will perform at a concert at the WPAC on 27 July).
Tickets for the concert are $35 for adults, $30 for concessions, students over ten $20, and children under ten free.
To book, either scan the QR code on their flyer on your smartphone, or visit the Try Booking link at https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1572205.
Read More: Southern Highlands, Wollondilly