About

Our Band

The Phoenix Concert Band is a community band with over 40 members, our aim is to enjoy making music and to have fun!

We play on Friday evenings in Christ Church, Sutton, at 7.15 pm during term time and at various concert venues throughout the year. Whilst junior players have many youth bands and orchestras to help them along, there are far fewer opportunities for adults who take up an instrument later in life or choose to return to playing after many years absence. We continue to welcome new players with little experience of ensemble playing although we do ask for Grade 4/5 proficiency or above with some sight-reading ability and a little experience of playing with other musicians. If you are interested in joining, please visit our contacts page.

The band also organises two optional residential weekends a year at Wychcroft House (near Godstone) where we enjoy exploring new repertoire and honing our playing. These have proved to be great fun, the 34th weekend being eagerly anticipated!

Our Assembly

Our members play a wide range of instruments:

• Woodwind: Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Alto/Tenor/Baritone Sax, Bassoon
• Brass: French Horn, Trumpet/Cornet, Trombone, Euphonium. Tuba, String Bass
• Percussion

The band is open access and welcomes enquiries from prospective members.

Our Music

We play a wide variety of music, including:

• Film and show selections
• Arrangements of popular songs, old and new
• Light classics
• Christmas carols and songs
• Big Band arrangements

The emphasis is on having fun and enjoying making music together!

Our Concerts

We have a programme of regular concerts, often in support of local or national charities, that in recent years has included performances at:

• Elizabeth Old Peoples Home, Croydon
• Redhill Methodist Church in aid of ‘Live at Home’
• The Chipstead Flower Show
• Friends Meeting House, Sutton
• ​Concerts for the Mayor of Sutton’s Charity Appeal
• Remembrance Sunday

The Phoenix Story

THE HISTORY OF THE PHOENIX CONCERT BAND by Richard Clifton

The band grew out of an evening class in ensemble playing for wind and brass players at Sutton College, then called Sutton College of Liberal Arts, in the 1990’s.

In 1994 the head of music at Sutton College was Noelle Sasportas. The College ran lessons for a number of wind instruments including clarinet and saxophone, as evening classes. It is said that the original impetus came from the clarinet class whose members said they would like to have the oportunity to play music with players of other instruments.

Noelle first advertised the band as an evening class in the College prospectus in 1995-96, calling it a “Trainee Orchestra”. It attracted one violinist and a lot of the players of wind instruments who had attended the evening classes. The following year (1996-97) it was advertised as a wind and brass band. Richard Clifton, who later became the secretary of the Phoenix band, recollects going to the band, having seen it advertised in the prospectus, for the first time on 20 September 1996 and finding he was the only brass player (he plays the trumpet),

The evening class proved popular. Noelle passed the leadership of the band to another music teacher, Lorraine Latin, who became the first Music Director of the band. Sadly, Noelle left the College shortly afterwards and the thriving music section at the College went into decline so that today there is no music section.

By 1999 tensions had emerged between the College and those attending the evening class. By now the band had a range of instruments, though still not much brass. It had developed a repertoire and members thought they would like to test themselves by playing some concerts. The College was discouraging. A decision was taken by band members to form a society whose members would just happen to be members of the evening class, and the society would arrange some concerts or events we could play at. On 2 July 1999 the band, during its final rehearsal that summer, convened a short meeting at which it resolved to set up this society, elected some officers, adopted a constitution and made arrangements to open a bank account. Thus the band was born. There was a discussion of what name to adopt. The band was meeting that evening at Phoenix College in Merton as Sutton College was closed and one of the band members was vice-principal of Phoenix College. The name chosen was the Phoenix Wind Band, later modified to be the Phoenix Concert Band.

The band was successful at finding opportunities to play. The following year the band played (on 25 June 2000) at the Millenium Dome, as part of a programme to showcase local bands. On 7 July 2001 it provided the music at an event in Windsor Great Park attended by the Queen Mother.

Difficulties continued to be experienced with the College, who decided to close the College on Friday evenings, our traditional rehearsal evening, to save money. Consequently, the evening class folded and that would have been the end of things but for the fact that we could continue to meet and rehearse as The Phoenix Concert Band, operating independently of the College and making our own arrangements to employ a Music Director, purchase music and arrange events. The band moved from the College to meet in a local church, Christchurch in Christchurch Park.

Over the years the band has thrived and increased in size. It now has regular commitments as a community band in Sutton, including providing the music at the annual Remembrance Day service at the war memorial in Belmont and raising money for local charities. It has a twice yearly “Away Weekend” to try out new music and improve our standard of playing.  It now, finally, has a big brass section.