About Us
The name 'Giocoso' means playing in a friendly, humorous manner and that is exactly what we try to do! We meet every Thursday evening from 8.00pm to 9.45pm in Greenacre Hall, Drayton Parslow. Everyone is welcome and there are no auditions. Since its formation, the Giocoso Concert Band has performed at engagements such as summer fetes, local music festivals, and community Christmas Carol concerts. With a repertoire comprising music ranging from Mozart through to the Beatles there is usually something for everyone! If you play a woodwind, brass or percussion instrument and are interested in joining the Giocoso Concert Band, then please phone either Dave or Julie on (01908) 503461 for more details.
Covid-19 and the band
When covid-19 forced us to stop rehearsing on Thursday evenings, we chose to turn to quizzing!
​
As a band, we carried on meeting (virtually!) every Thursday through lockdown to take part in a quiz. Traditionally, every quiz had a general knowledge, picture and music round with all sound clips taken from previous band performances.
​
As we approached the first Christmas and were still unable to meet, we chose to create a Christmas concert from videos sent in by members. We also worked on a bigger project to record and edit together 'Winter Wonderland' as a finale to our virtual concert.
​
We continued to hold the weekly quizzes and enjoyed seeing lots of familiar faces of members who had left but still kept in contact. When we reached quiz number 50, we decided to do a second recording project of 'Hawaii Five-O' to commemorate.
​
Not long after, we were able to start rehearsing together again but in a whole other way than pre-pandemic! We began by playing on a cricket pitch, completely spread out away from each other. Even though it got colder and darker, we carried on as it was so nice to be able to play music together again.
​
Eventually, it got too dark to rehearse so we found a new venue that could be ventilated and we had room to continue spacing.
It was quite a nice change to move from a cold, dark field into a warm, light village hall!