Cape Breton Community Band Fest 2021 News!

🎵Hello to fellow Atlantic Community Band members and musicians from all over. 🎶
Second Wind Community Concert Band will host their annual Cape Breton Community BandFest 2021 on a new date and at a new location for this year.
Our date for this year will be the weekend after thanksgiving, October 15-17th and will be held at the Gaelic College in St. Ann’s just near the beginning of the Cabot Trail Entrance once you take Exit 11 off of Hwy 105.
See attachment for details.
Come and enjoy this weekend of making music set in the beautiful colours and hills of Cape Breton.
On behalf of the Second Wind Community Concert Band, their Artistic Team, Margaret Miles, Michele Xidos and Sarah MacDonald,
Sincerely, Laura Mercer

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Message from Mike Morrissey

Hi Dave
Hope you are doing well. The world has changed since I last saw you – what a year + it has been.
Ron and I have put together another tour (to France this time) for the Maritime Community Ensemble. It is scheduled for the last part of July 2022. We sent an email out to community band directors and contacts, including HCB, but have heard that a number went to spam folders.
We are sending the notice out again in individual emails to make sure everyone that would like to participate hears about it. All community band players are welcome to join the trip.
Would you mind passing this email along to the Halifax Concert Band members.
Thanks so much, Mike Morrissey
www.schoolsouttours.ca Toll Free 877-955-2244 Local 902-576-3422 Fax 877-445-7878 Email mike@schoolsouttours.ca

Message from Michelle Gailey

Hi Everyone,
Thanks so much for the lovely and very thoughtful birthday cards. I appreciate all your well wishes and messages. For those of you who know me well, you know that I am a true crazy cat lady. I didn’t know that there were so many cat-themed cards out there!
Although the inoperable cancer has progressed throughout the body, I continue to fight it one day at a time with the moral support of a network of wonderful friends and family. Overall, I feel fine with the 20 chemo treatments and three radiation therapy treatments I have received since June 2020. The VG Dickson Building has become my home away from home!
I look forward to attending your concerts and seeing all of you, once the COVID dust settles. We will eventually get through this pandemic and get back to a “new normal”. I’m looking forward to a family reunion in PEI in June, hoping that the Atlantic bubble re-opens.
Take care and stay safe. Thanks again for the cards.
Michelle Gailey

Message from Sherri Green

I was wondering if you would be able to forward this message to the band members. It’s an update and a request regarding Michelle Gailey.
Last year, after recovering from a double hip replacement, Michelle found out she had cancer. She had chemo last summer, then radiation but has since sadly found out her cancer can’t be cured.
Her sister Lorraine put the following message in an e-mail and said I could share it with the band. She says:
Shell’s birthday is coming up on Monday, May 24th (that’s the long weekend marking Victoria Day). She will be 64. Most of you know, my dear sister is a champion, when it comes to getting cards out on time for just about everyone she knows. In fact, for the 37 some years she was with her community band, playing her clarinet, she was the person responsible getting all the cards for the bandmates, for all sorts of occasions. (Needless to say, she excelled at it.) Well, she LOVES receiving mail, as much as sending it.
If you can, I would be so grateful if you could mail her a card. If you want suggestions for what might tickle her fancy for a card type, she loves cats, music, Hollywood stars, politics, dining out, playing cards, and, of course, a good joke.
Her address is:
Miss Michelle Gailey (she prefers Miss) Apt. 210 405 Larry Uteck Drive Halifax, NS B3M 0G8
Thanks.
Sherri

Message from Dave Staples

Hi all,
I am reminded today that tonight would have been our annual Holiday Christmas concert at St Agnes Church and it gave me pause to think of all of you and to hope that you and your families and friends are all staying safe during this second wave and indeed through this whole time since March.
Our annual Christmas concert always reinforces to me that we are all in this HCB family together as music lovers, musicians, performers and colleagues, which is a wonderful thing! Let’s keep that spirit in our hearts as we move on, even though we can’t celebrate it together in person this year.
This will all come to pass and I’m sure that we will find that time in the near future when we can get back to the pleasures of making music together.
Stay safe and please accept my best wishes for a joyous and happy season.
Dave