2005 New Zealand National Championships - Introduction

4BR is out in New Zealand soaking up the atmosphere ahead of this weekend's 125th National Championships.

Date & Venue:
Wellington Convention Centre, 23-27 March

This year sees the 125th running of the New Zealand Brass Band Championships, which this year takes place at the excellent Wellington Convention Centre right in the heart of the countries capital city, and 4BR has made the long and exhaustive trip out here to report on it.

Wellington itself is a lovely place: full of character, fine buildings both old and new and friendly cosmopolitan people, although up until Wednesday it was touch and go to whether the event was going to be held at all, as unseasonable fog had closed the airport for three days, making transport to the city for bands from the South Island and from Australia and abroad, impossible. 

Wellington airport has a reputation as being one of the most difficult destinations for planes of any size to land in even when the weather is good, so there must have been a few clenched buttocks when the bands started to land on the tarmac earlier on the Wednesday in conditions described as "marginal".  Still, now that they have got here, there is a wonderful event in store over the next six days.

Unlike the UK Nationals, the New Zealand Championships is spread over a longer period so that a number of different events can be accommodated, such as individual solo contests to ensembles with players from just about all the bands from percussionists and BBb basses right through to cornets and sopranos, and include amateur soloists, duets, junior quartets, the prestigious Champion of Champions Finale and Open Invitation Slow Melody Contest, and even a special 'Veterans' section.  All these events are awarded prizes to commemorate this 125th year, so the players will be extra keen to get their names on them this year.

The climax for this will take place on the Thursday night when the 'Open Champion of Champions' contest sponsored by Besson takes place.

Here, all the individual winners of the solo sections, from the Veterans, percussion, BBb and Eb bass, Euphonium, Bass Trombone, Tenor Trombone, Baritone, Tenor Horn, Flugel, Amateur Cornet, Championship Cornet and Soprano come together again to perform solos of their own choice to a panel of three adjudicators, Alan Morrison, Tom Brevik and John Rimmer. The standard is very high indeed, and although in many ways it is a throwback to the old days of solo contests, it remains a popular event here.

This event started 125 years ago in Christchurch when the inaugural contest was won by the Invercargill Garrison Band, and there is a nice sense of symmetry about this years celebratory event in that it takes place 125 years very much to the day of that first contest, as this year the Nationals were brought forward to accommodate the trip to be made by the National Band of New Zealand to the World Championships in Kerkrade. 

There is also a bit of an international feel here to the premier A Grade Contest as well, as bands from New Zealand will be joined by competitors from Australia, England and Sweden all trying to claim the Championship Gold Cup . In addition there is a whole host of well known players from the UK flown in to assist the bands in their attempts to overcome the difficult set work, "St. Magnus" by Kenneth Downie and many of them will be looking to claim the equally prestigious Elgar Clayton Memorial Trophy awarded to the outstanding soloist on the A Grade set work.

The format of the contest is in three parts, with a hymn tune, set work and own choice making up a trio of disciplines for the chief adjudicator, Alan Morrison to compare and contrast between the 12 bands, with last years winners, Dalewool Auckland Brass conducted by Nigel Weeks looking to become champions for a third successive year. 

It should prove to be a fine contest, what with the reigning champions set to defend their title against their fellow New Zealand contenders as well as Gothenburg Brass from Sweden under the direction of Bengt Eklund, and United Co-op Yorkshire Brass directed by John Roberts who have undertaken this mammoth trip at huge expense as a real 'once in a lifetime' experience.

There are some interesting choices made for the 'Own Choice' section as well, what with 'Music of the Spheres' getting a premiere performance, as well as some old favourites such as 'Paganini Variations'.

The Hymn Tune Section sees the bands undertake to play some lovely arrangements of hymn tunes, whilst on the Saturday there is the traditional (and keenly fought over) Street March Contest (which doesn't count towards the overall championships in any of the sections).

This is a great sight, and will put all UK bands who try a bit of marching on the Whit Friday shindig to shame as the precision, seriousness (nearly all the bands play without music and with a seriously good Drum Major at the helm) is something else. And all this to batter the lips before the set work ahead!!!

In addition to the main contest, the audiences will also be treated to some fine entertainment playing on the Monday when Dalewool, Canterbury Foundation and Waitakere will be joined by Yorkshire Co-op to play off for the title of "Band of the Year", and after the brilliance of last year when Woolston took the title, but the whole show was stolen by Alex Kerwin and her fantastic playing, it will be an event to look forward to for sure. 

4BR is here to report on the event and try to bring you a taste of what the brass banding scene is like here in the 'Land of the Long White Cloud'. We'll include a couple of postcards, some concert reviews and a retrospective of the main contest.

> See also: contest schedule and bands