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Celebrate Rotary

Celebrate Rotary is a new march by the renowned composer of music Dr Peter Graham, it was commissioned to mark the centenary of Rotary International.

Paul P. Harris, an attorney who wished to recapture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth, formed the world’s first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA, on 23 February 1905. The name "Rotary" derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members' offices.

Rotary has become a worldwide organisation of business and professional leaders that provides humanitarian service, encourages high ethical standards in all vocations, and helps build goodwill and peace in the world. Approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 31,000 Rotary clubs located in 166 countries.

The Rotary Club of Nuneaton in Warwickshire were seeking a special project to celebrate Rotary’s centenary, the idea to commission a new piece of music came from Rotarian Derek Wilkinson who is a past president of the club. The Club acknowledges the financial support of Rotary International Great Britain and Ireland (RIBI) in providing funding to commission this work.

Dr Peter Graham accepted the commission to compose a march ‘Celebrate Rotary’ the title is taken from Rotary’s theme in its centenary year.

Peter enjoys an international reputation as one of the leading composers of music for the British style brass band, with over 100 publications to his credit. The majority are published by the “family firm” Gramercy Music (UK), which he started with his wife Janey in 1994, and is named after the Gramercy Park area of Manhattan where the Grahams were resident in the early 1980’s.

As part of the Centenary celebrations both Rotary and Gramercy Music (UK) have kindly agreed to make the full score and parts available for download from the Rotary Club of Nuneaton website www.rotarycd.com

The British Brass Band Champions, Black Dyke Band conducted by Dr Nicholas Childs, performed the world premier of Celebrate Rotary at St David’s Hall Cardiff on 29th January 2005

Black Dyke Band are themselves celebrating 150 years of music making and have included a recording of Celebrate Rotary on their latest compact disk ESSENTIAL DYKE V – Celebrate Rotary.  Copies provide a model performance of the work and can be obtained from the Rotary Club of Nuneaton at www.rotarycd.com

Profits from the sale of recordings by Rotary will be donated to The Rotary Foundation a not-for-profit corporation that supports the efforts of Rotary International to achieve world understanding and peace through international humanitarian, educational, and cultural exchange programs.