History

The Deep Cove Community Swing Band Society was founded in 1997 by Wilf Fawcett and a group of primarily retired North Vancouver musicians. Their objective was to preserve the big band and swing style of music in our community and have the band perform for various groups and at various events in North Vancouver. The band continues to successfully meet these objectives with an improving quality of musicianship and ongoing dedication. The band is now invited back to several venues on an annual (and sometimes semi-annual) basis. The (recently renamed) Deep Cove Big Band has become a regular and sought after attraction at Deep Cove Daze, the annual Coho Festival and at several of our local senior’s facilities. At every opportunity, we strive to expose our community to this wonderful style of music and for the past several years, we have also awarded two $300 bursaries to graduating music students at Seycove Secondary.

Since 2000, the Band has retained a professional Music Director to provide musical direction, leadership and mentoring of the Band and its members. The caliber of musicians in the group is quite varied and having a musical director available to assist the less experienced players has provided opportunities for those that might not be able or willing to participate. Today, our current membership ranges in age from university students in their early 20’s to one of our very passionate bass players who just turned 80. The band also recently acknowledged the contributions of our founder Wilf Fawcett and our long time drummer Wally Beck with Life Memberships in our Society.