Friary Brass recently returned to St Nicolas Church, Great Bookham for a concert that helped raise over £1,000 for the ongoing improvements of the 11th century church.

Wide ranging

The audience were treated to works that encompassed Peter Graham's witty 'Cartoon Music' to Roger Deronge's reflective 'Lux' as well as two church organ inspired works in Widor's 'Toccata' and Bach's 'Toccata in D Minor'.

Howard Snell's percussion feature arrangement 'Tea for Two' was complemented by solo by principal cornet Richard Straker with Chris King's arrangement of 'Defying Gravity' and horn soloist Morgan Marston playing Alan Catherall's arrangement of 'Evergreen'.

Wow factor

This was Friary's third appearance at the venue, all of which have been appreciated by capacity audiences. Church spokesperson Nick Garrett told 4BR: "'Wow! What a fantastic evening of music.

I can only begin to imagine the amount of sheer hard work which went into rehearsing that programme together and playing it to such an incredible standard."

Full house

In response Band Chairperson David Wicks added: "We love playing at St Nicolas. It's always wonderful to play to a full house with such an appreciative audience."

MD Nigel Taken added: "'I recognise that the programme devised was both challenging and ambitious, but I was confident that the band would produce the high standard of performance we achieved. I was proud to be able to showcase the players' considerable musical talents."