Welcome to the home of the Orillia Silver Band. We are a community band in the traditional British Brass Band style who perform diverse concerts across the region ranging from the Orillia Jazz Festival to fundraising events to the Mariposa Folk Festival.
The Orillia Silver Band
invites you to a
Marche Joyeuse Spring Concert
Marche Joyeuse – The Orillia Silver Band marches into spring with some wonderful tunes for brass band. The concert takes place on Sunday, March 19, 2023, 2:00 pm at St. Paul’s Centre. Concert tickets are $25.00 for adults, $10.00 for students/children and are available online from the Orillia Opera House Box Office - www.orilliaoperahouse.ca
This is the band’s 2022-2023 season spring concert. The concert, called Marche Joyeuse, is a diverse collection of music in a celebratory mood – just in time for winter’s final thaw (we hope!). “This concert is packed with musical styles from traditional brass band classics through to popular favorites” says Neil Barlow, the band’s Music Director and Conductor.
Marche Joyeuse by Emmanuel Chabrier is a well-known, quirky, and wonderful celebration of fun. The Rhapsody in Brass by Dean Goffin comprises one of the pillars of great music literature for brass band. And a suite from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess is always a crowd pleaser. Included on the programme is Variations on a Welsh Theme by Peter Kneale, featuring the band’s own Sarah Hemeon as Soprano Cornet soloist.
Paul Lovatt-Cooper created Fire in the Blood, an exciting modern tower of musical expression for brass band. Pops for Brass by Goff Richards is a fun nod in the direction of jazz and swing music. And the ever-popular When the Saints Go Marchin’ In is not to be missed – especially because this tune includes an audience sing-along!
Featured Events
Serenade in Brass
Orillia, ON L3V 3A6
Serenade in Brass The Orillia Silver Band offers a series of selections tailored to the lover of great music. Franz Von Suppe’s Light Cavalry Overture is a popular favourite from the golden age of light music. Gordon Langford’s Fantasy on British Sea songs is a beautiful rhapsody of traditional tunes […]
Find out more »Orillia Aquatheatre
Orillia, ON L3V 4H8
The Orillia Silver Band will be back at the Aquatheatre this summer as part of the Orillia Sunday Evening Band Concerts. Please join us for a delightful evening of favourites in the beautiful setting on Lake Couchiching.
Find out more »Huntsville Festival of the Arts
Huntsville, ON P1H 1A1 Canada
The Orillia Silver Band is delighted to be part of this year's Summer Series of the Huntsville Festival of the Arts. On Saturday, July 15th and Sunday, July 16th we will be joined by the renowned Canadian concert pianist, Kyung-A Lee for a concert that you won't want to miss! […]
Find out more »Check out our Events page for details on all of our upcoming performances.
OSB Recordings
The OSB has recorded several CDs and videos for your enjoyment. You can hear our commissioned works that include Mariposa Sketches, A Life Well-Lived and the Railroad Trilogy on our 3 CDs (Mariposa Sketches, Christmas Time is Here, and Couchiching Classics). You can also follow us on our YouTube Channel (and Facebook too!!) where you can see A Life Well-Lived by Ty Watson and numerous videos recorded "at home" during the pandemic. If you are interested in purchasing a copy of a CD, just send us a note an we will give you the details.
Click here to listen to some samples.
What people are saying about us....
Entertainment writer John Swartz was at our December "Sleigh Bells and Brass Concert" in Orillia and said in SUNonline/Orillia (24 Dec 2022):
"Last Sunday’s Orillia Silver Band concert was awesome. The main floor of Gord’s Room at the Opera House was almost full with about 340 people on hand. I didn’t expect that. The band played on a level a few steps above their last outing. There was one point during Leroy Anderson’s A Christmas Festival (a medley), the cornet’s were playing the Deck The Halls section, with mutes, and they were playing so softly, in the pocket as meant to be against the mid and lower brass, I had to concentrate to pick them out of the sounds. As I’ve remarked a few times, trumpet and cornet layers as a species often play louder than they need to, sometimes a lot louder. Anderson’s piece was the last on the program, but I noticed much earlier in the show how controlled the cornets were (afterward speaking with others who are musicians, they noticed too). That was mostly because overall the whole band was controlling the dynamics (loud and soft) of each piece, hardly getting really loud. That let them shape the music much better than some professional bands and orchestras I’ve heard. Playing like that also makes the execution of the music easier to achieve. That’s starting and ending notes together. When even one person in a section doesn’t begin playing at the precise instant in time as the others it’s noticeable. Many music ensembles with say 6 people per instrument type half of them might be together and the others real close most of the time, so it’s not bad. When you hear clean playing and it carries on throughout a program, it elevates the listening experience. People who aren’t musicians notice these things, but just chock it up to it sounds better. When you hear a musician talk about a band playing clean, what the OSB did on Sunday is what they mean (some musicians have lower standards of what clean means, mine is pretty high) and they marvel when even 5 people in a rock band are razor sharp and in such control of their sound, let alone when there’s 40 people playing."
Stay Updated
We send out an E-newsletter about 3 times a year to keep you up to date on OSB happenings and upcoming concerts. We also send out concert reminders for each of our concerts. Don't miss and OSB event. Join our newsletter list today!