We are a community brass band with c.100 players of all ages. We wish to buy musical instruments to help us expand and a printer / scanner to help us digitise our extensive music library.
Irvine and Dreghorn Brass has been in existence for c. 45 years and is a registered charity. We have 3 brass bands in our organisation and we provide opportunities for community members to learn music, play in a group and be entertained by music which has major health and well-being benefits for participants and audiences alike.
We perform at over 30 concerts and gala days each year and are seen by thousands of people. We also provide free music lessons and access to brass and percussion instruments for young people and adults.
Part of the funding would be spent on instruments that enable more people to play. While we will require to spend more than £630 on buying new / nearly new instruments, we will look to fund this additioal spend via other sources.
We would also like to buy a good quality printer / scanner. We often need to copy sheet music for our musicians to play and practice. Also we have a large library of sheet music, around 900 arrangements collected over our 40+ year existence, that we would like to digitise (scan). Parts of the sheet music often get lost or damaged and creating on-line copies would protect the music and enable us to print parts as required for our band rehearsals and classes.
Demand for our services is growing and our membership has grown 50% in the last year. Many people want to play in bands and community groups have us play at events.
Location: As the only brass band organisation in North Ayrshire we provide opportunities to participate in music making and learning. Although based in Dreghorn, Irvine we have members from all over North Ayrshire and also perform all over the local authority area. Our charity aims include delivering benefits to our community including: - Education – provide high quality music education to compliment education authority delivery - Health – participation in music making has health and mental well- being benefits - Youth / Children – music participation improves the well-being and happiness of children - Culture – we are enabling community members to participate in music making and learning. There are 3 bands in our organisation; a senior band of c.35, a community/fun band of c. 25, and youth band with 25 young people. We also provide free lessons and instruments to c. 20 beginners. Our premises, Dunlop Hall, Dreghorn is used 4–5 days a week by various groups and for community concerts (c. 100 audience). We are trying to grow all groups and significantly increase our members. In 2022 we participated in over 30 events including Marymass, Viking Festival, and community concerts in Irvine, Beith and Ayr. We support many charity and community events including Coastwatch’s Polar Plunge, Remembrance parades and many Christmas events. Our senior band competes in brass band competitions and is Borders Entertainment contest champions and Scottish 2nd section champions. We are open to all. We have existing members and learners from many groups/categories including children, young people, older people, those suffering recent bereavement, people experiencing multiple disadvantages, people with long term health conditions and disabilities, LGBTQ+ people.
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