From the Royal York to the Palais Royale,
the GTA Swing Band is still filling dance floors
after eleven great years!

Celebrating its twelfth anniversary in 2008, the GTA Swing Band continues to delight audiences with its high-energy performances of popular tunes from the swing era. Specializing in the music of Glenn Miller, Count Basie and Duke Ellington, among others, the band-founded in March 1996-has garnered a reputation for lively, fun-filled performances that leave crowds cheering for more. Along with playing the hits from the glory days of swing, the band also performs songs in a variety of musical styles to suit any occasion.

In the past two years alone, the GTA Swing Band has wowed audiences at a plethora of locales in Southern and Central Ontario. In Toronto, for instance, the band has filled dance floors at the Royal York Hotel, The Royal Ontario Museum, Balmy Beach Yacht Club, Ash Bridges Bay Yacht Club, St. Lawrence Hall, the Moonlight Ballroom, the Winchester, the Bamboo Club, Mr. Slate, the historic Palais Royale and icon Dunn's Pavilion (Kee to Bala). It has also become a regular attraction at the Battle of the Bands at the Hamilton Convention Centre, where it has won twice for Best Stage Show Band. In 2003 & 2005 teamed up with the Curtain Call Players to present a musical "Sentimental Journey" to raves from critics and sold out audience alike.

Each summer, the band also stops in Haliburton to get swing fans "in the mood" for giving at the annual fundraiser for the local hospital.

"The enthusiasm of the members and the fun they have when playing are what make the GTA Swing Band truly special-and the audience picks up on that," says the band's musical director, Vic Lawrence, who has played with many of the country's most-renowned big bands over the past 40 years as well as with his own band, the popular Vic Lawrence Seven. "Like our audiences, this band consists of people of all ages from all walks of life who are bound together by this common interest-swing music."