P.E.I.'s only full brass band celebrates 10-year anniversary

CBC

08-06-2025

Prince Edward Island's only full brass brand is celebrating its 10-year anniversary Sunday evening with a concert at Zion Presbyterian Church in Charlottetown.
The Great George Street Brass Band — named after the historic Charlottetown street of the same name — has been making music since 2015, and is one of only a few full brass bands in existence in the Maritimes.
"It's a unique style," said Ken Mayhew, one of the group's founding members. "You can't hear it anywhere else on the Island.
"We mostly do this for our own entertainment, but when we can share it with other people that's a really important part of the whole thing, too."
The brass band's concert repertoire includes traditional brass band numbers, as well as some contemporary numbers that have been arranged for brass band instruments, Mayhew said.
"The idea is to give our audience a wide selection of what we do, why we do it," he said.
"We've also picked out a couple of tunes which we kind of hope people are going to get a certain sense of patriotism and maybe get those elbows up just a little bit."
Reviving a tradition
Brass bands have a long tradition, Mayhew said.
During the industrial revolution, brass instruments became less expensive to make and new instruments started using valve technology, which allowed for more notes to be played, he said.
The tradition was picked up in a variety of places — particularly in the United Kingdom — and music could often be heard in mines and factories, he said.
"There were brass bands on Prince Edward Island in the 1800s and 1900s, but for a lot of reasons that tradition died out," he said.
Reviving that tradition — and having fun while doing it — was what the Great George Street Band hoped to do when it was created back in 2015, Mayhew said.
'10 successful years'
Reflecting on the past decade, Mayhew said the brass band has had "10 successful years, despite the struggles."
"Charlottetown particularly is a wonderful place when it comes down to the number of talented musicians who are interested in this kind of thing, but it's also a somewhat limited pool," he said.
Many of the band's members are also part of other musical groups, he said, adding that some musicians have multiple rehearsal nights per week with different ensembles.
While the anniversary concert provides an opportunity to celebrate the music its members have played over the past decade, Mayhew hopes to commemorate the milestone in another way.
Being named after Great George Street, the band has always wanted to get a photo on that street, he said.
"We formed in 2015. That's when they put the walls up around Province House. And here we are 10 years in and the walls are still up," he said.