ABOUT
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SWON is an enthusiastic and friendly wind orchestra based in the East Finchley and Muswell Hill area of North London.  SWON was established in 1998 by Stephen Kersley and Stuart Allen FRCM with a grant from Barnet Council and has been going strong ever since, making regular concert appearances in the area, including performances at the Proms at St Jude's in Hampstead Garden Suburb.
In 2004 we were pleased to welcome conductor Grace Rossiter who has led the band in many extremely successful concert, including the East Finchley Festival in 2007. The same year we made our first overseas concert tour to Belgium, playing concerts as part of the Antwerp festival and on the lovely ornate Victorian bandstand in Ostend.

In 2009 we celebrated our 10th Anniversary with concerts in the United Reform Church, Muswell Hill, at the bandstand in Ruskin Park, Camberwell (where we have now become regulars!) and at St Anne's Church, Highgate.

At the start of 2012, Adam Cooke joined us as our new conductor and we look forward to working with him on some new and challenging music.  Originally from Belfast, Adam studied Music at the University of Manchester and despite his tender young age, already conducts many brass and wind ensembles as well as teaching peripatetically at a number of schools and colleges.  For more information on Adam, please visit his website here.

We currently give 3 formal concerts a year and also perform bandstand concerts in the summer and busk to raise money to buy new music at Christmas.

REPERTOIRE
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SWON have covered a wide range of musical styles, from classics of the wind band repertoire such as the Holst Suites in Eb and F and the "Folk Songs Suite" of Vaughn-Williams, to the more unusual examples of their output, like the ballet score "The Perfect Fool" and the "Toccata Marziale", respectively. Arrangements of Elgar's fascinating portrait of Edwardian London, "Cockaigne", Walton's coronation march "Crown Imperial", the dazzling overtures to Rossini's Thievish Magpie and Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro" operas have also featured in our programmes, as has Kabalevsky's exciting overture "Colas Breugon".

In a lighter vein we have also included selections from "West Side Story" and "Porgy and Bess", as well as favourites such as "My Fair Lady", "South Pacific", and "Fiddler on the Roof", not forgetting to tip our hats occasionally to the doyen of marches, J. P. Souza with his now infamous "Monty Python" theme tune, "The Liberty Bell" and perennial favourites, the "Stars and Stripes Forever" and the "Washington Post".  Moving into more current popular culture, we've played music from "Harry Potter" and the animated Pixar film "Ratatouille"!  We've even premiered a piece written especially for SWON by Nick Planas, to perform along with junior players.

More recently, we have tackled some challenging classical repertoire, such as Copland's music for the film "The Red Pony", incidental music for Bernstein's "Candide", Dukas' "Sorcerer's Apprentice", Rossini's "William Tell Overture" and excerpts from Dvorak's "New World" Symphony.  Last year we performed arrangements of Beethoven's "Coriolan" Overture and the Finale from Shostakovich's 5th Symphony.

We have also performed a number of pieces arranged specially for us by our former band member Roger Cawkwell.  Including "Two Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm" by Bela Bartok and a selection of sea songs.