Hard to believe it's already August. We are getting ready for our TWO Musikfest shows this week, and we'll have a special tribute to Musikfest artists at both performances.

Here are our shows:

THURSDAY, AUGUST 6th - 5 p.m. - Preview Night at Levitt Pavilion at Steel Stacks on the Southside of Bethlehem.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 7th - 7:30 p.m. - Opening Night of Musikfest at Levitt Pavilion Steel Stacks on the Southside of Bethlehem.

We'll have our brand new t-shirts for sale at the 'Fest as well!

Thanks to Matt Smith of the Express Times, who mentioned our shows at the 'Fest in a little article about new music.

We've had an exciting month here in the 'Symphony, with news about two summertime shows that made us practically radiate happiness. 

Tunes at Twilight, in our humble opinion, is one of the best events that the Downtown Bethlehem Association hosts every year.  Set up in the beautiful and shaded Sun Inn Courtyard in Downtown Bethlehem, this easily accessible small park seats hundreds, and makes for a lively place for a free concert. Surrounded by Bethlehem's downtown restaurants, breweries, wineries and more, there are great places to dine before-hand or afterwards, or, enjoy food and drink from the Tunes Bar, which serves wine and beer, often regional offerings.  They've extended the concert series this year through July, which gives you more chances to enjoy a warm summer evening.  Sunshine Symphony will be there on July 2nd. We're looking forward to our 2nd year at this event.


Musikfest is Bethlehem's signature musical event, and it's been going on for 30 years now! Imagine an entire town turned into outdoor music venues for free concerts of all genres!  Plus, the event features every portable culinary delight you can think of. Pickle on a stick? Yep. Barbecued meat skewer? Yes. Vegan taco? Sure. Totally my idea of heaven. The event brings thousands of visitors to town (and the boost to the local economy is noticeable), but it also makes me personally happy that I live in a place that so celebrates music.  Come see us at Levitt Pavilion on the South Side of Bethlehem (right in front of Steelstacks), the opening night of Muskiest, Friday, August 7th at 7:30.

Check our schedule for ALL of our upcoming shows.

See you out and about this summer!
Peace, Love & Rock n' Roll,

Christine Bainbridge, Sunshine Symphony

This weekend is the musical community's biggest event in the Lehigh Valley - the Lehigh Valley Music Awards happen on Sunday, March 8th at ArtsQuest.  Sunshine Symphony is thrilled to be nominated by our peers in the music industry as "Outstanding New Band" this year (our second together).

We have been thankful to have performed all over the area in the past year, from "Tunes at Twilight" to Forks Township's Summer Concert series, to Fullerton Carnival, and happy that people have noticed the passion we put into our performances, the time we've spent rehearsing and re-rehearsing, and the variety of the music we play, like our tongue-in-cheek humor as you listen to our version of "Raise Your Glass" that bursts suddenly into the chorus of "Let it Go" from Frozen.

We are also thankful to be a part of the Lehigh Valley and Philadelphia music scenes, and have such a variety of venues in which to perform. To be part of a community that recognizes the arts and its talented musicians is a blessing!

Read about some of the other industry nominees for awards here in this article by Dustin Schoof:
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/music/index.ssf/2015/03/lehigh_valley_music_awards_16_2.html#incart_2box_entertainment_index.ssf

Thank you to Tall Ships America, who found Sunshine Symphony after a band search and asked us to play their Annual Awards Banquet and Gala, which was held in Philadelphia. We said, "Sure!" and then made plans to travel the hour or so into the city to the Sheraton Society Hill.

Tall Ships America is a diverse organization of sailors and educators who host programs to teach young people how to sail and other valuable life lessons, like confidence, leadership,  The organization also has a scholarship program which allows many young people the chance to join the program, even if they never thought it possible.  Tall Ships wanted Sunshine Symphony to entertain the staff after dinner and after their awards ceremony.  We perform at a lot of private parties - and this audience included many age groups and musical tastes. The group was ready to have a good time, and we got everyone dancing and singing along by the end of the night, which you can see in this video clip.

Post by Sunshine Symphony.

 

Organizer Darlene Godin had this to say about working with the Lehigh Valley and Philadelphia's best cover band:

"I just wanted to let you know that we received rave reviews about Sunshine Symphony’s performance at our annual awards banquet on Friday the 6th.  When the dancers finally got on the dance floor, there was no stopping them. Your professional attitude and amazing performance was over the top fantastic. We wish we could bring you with us to all our conferences. From the whole staff here at Tall Ships America,
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!"

Sunshine Symphony has quite a bit of experience working with event planners and corporations to provide entertainment and sound support for special events. Christine, in her former life, worked as a Marketing and Corporate Event planner, so she is very familiar with what corporate party-goers expect and enjoy at special events. She's also aware of the questions that event planners ask, has great attention to detail and knows just what information needs to be exchanged in order to make all aspects of the party a success.

We have a substantial sound system as well, that can handle large rooms like the very large ballroom at the Sheraton Society Hill without overpowering it. With our sound set up, Tall Ships America was able to use our wireless microphone and PA system to announce their award recipients, and we were happy to run sound during the awards banquet and make sure everything sounded great.

If you need Sunshine Symphony to illuminate your special event, please use our form to Contact Us, or give us a call a 888-937-3568

Peace, Love & Rock n Roll,
Christine Bainbridge, Sunshine Symphony

 

Happy 2015 to our new fans and our fans from the very beginning! We are overjoyed that 2014 was so successful.

We booked lots of new venues! We met so many great people and got to celebrate with our wonderful new friends and fans at their happy occasions.  We'll be making our debut at Club Gravity at Chicago's Restaurant (previously Mezza Luna in Allentown). We're excited to be playing for the members of the Fullerton Fire Company in May, and playing more shows at the Coplay Saengerbund this year.  Also, we hope to soon add a few dates at the Parx Casino in Philadelphia. Several weddings are already booked here and in Philadelphia and there are a few more in the works.

We're working on new music! At rehearsal on Monday, we worked on 5 new songs that we'll be adding to upcoming sets and probably a few more in the next few weeks before we start getting ready for "wedding season". The result of our 2014 Music Poll showed the MOST votes for the Luke Bryan song "Play it Again" - so we may be adding that to our set soon.  Other high-ranked songs from our poll: "Happy" from Pharrell Williams, "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea (I am not fantastic at rapping, but I'd try it),  "Rude" by Magic (already in our set list!) and "All of Me" by John Legend.

I'm currently obsessed with Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" song and can't seem to get that out of my head...we may have to add that one as well.

What would you like to see from us in 2015? More videos? Where would you like to see us play? Let us know in the comments, and we'll do our best to make it happen. Happy New Year - hope it's a great one for you, too!

Peace, Love & Rock n' Roll,
Christine Bainbridge, Sunshine Symphony