By Ashleigh Fielding | posted on November 2, 2018
PROCEEDS from next month’s collaborative performance between Albany Sinfonia and the City of Albany Band will fund renovations to their shared home, Lancaster Hall.
City of Albany Band conductor Colin France said the Lancaster Hall committee had recently installed new lighting in the hall but other amenities required upgrading to make the hall more comfortable for users.
He said the building, which used to be a church, had basic toilets, a simple storeroom and limited facilities, and that the urn often had to be filled from the bathroom sink.
He said ticket sales from Last Night of the Proms, to be performed on November 24 at Oceans Church, would go towards funding the hall’s upgrades.
“We don’t really have a kitchen, so we are trying to put one in, and we want to upgrade the toilets too,” Mr France said.
“It’s a good building, but it needs a bit of maintenance…it needs painting too.”
Lancaster Hall committee chair Alison Steer said she planned to have a disabled toilet facility added as well as water access in the kitchen.
“The concert should hopefully pay to put in the kitchen plumbing for hot and cold water,” she said.
Ms Steer said the concert, which will include a guest performance from the Albany Choral Society, will be the first performed at Oceans Church.
She said the impressive facility could seat 500 people and that she was keen to test out its acoustics.
“We are very excited to be one of the opening acts to first perform at the church,” Ms Steer said.
“We are bringing back Last Night of the Proms by popular demand as a bit of fun for the end of the year.”
Mr France added the performance will be “typical” of Last Night of the Proms, so the audience can “sing along and make funny noises” at their pleasure.
Tickets for the November 24 show are now on sale from Uptown Music and trybooking.com.
