Queensland Youth Brass Band - 2006

Sixty-four young musicians attended this year’s camp at Nudgee College, Boondall – the largest number of participants to attend a youth brass band camp in Queensland.

After a weeklong live in camp at Nudgee College Boondall, the 2006 Queensland Youth Brass Band performed to a capacity audience in the Ian Hanger Recital Hall of the Conservatorium of Music on Saturday 21st January 2006.

Queensland Youth Brass Band, Piazza Concert, 2006

It was a stunning performance by the young brass musicians who received a standing ovation at the conclusion of the Concert.

The program featured music by Peter Graham including "Cry of the Celts", music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, music from the movies "Brassed Off" and "Gladiator" and a great little number from Dutch composer, Ted Huggins, entitled "Chorale and Rockout", to name but a few.

The improvement in the standard of performance from when the camp first commenced to the final concert was quite remarkable and as one person commented, "the kids came to the camp playing like C or D Grade players and came away playing like A Grade players".

Tegan Rutt

The camp attracted the largest number of participants of any camp ever held in Queensland under the auspices of the Queensland Band Association. Of the 64 young musicians attending the camp, 50 were aged 16 years or younger, with the youngest participant being a mere 8 years old.

Anna Quinn

A spokesperson for Brisbane Brass who hosted the camp paid tribute to the dedication, professionalism and good humour of musical directors Bryan Hurdley and Maureen Cameron as well as the efforts of the tutors and house parents to achieve such an outstanding outcome from such a young group which, for the first time, was opened up to young brass musicians from outside the brass band movement.

Maureen Cameron and Bryan Hurdley

In addition to young brass musicians from all parts of Queensland, musicians from West Australia, South Australia and Victoria attended the camp and it hoped that in future years the camp will become a truly national event.

The concert was recorded live and CD's of the performance can be purchased from Brisbane Brass. For each CD purchased for $20, the purchaser will receive an additional CD free of charge.

The concert was dedicated to the Lawrence family who were involved in a tragic motor vehicle accident over the Christmas holiday period.

And what about the participants? Erin Ellis and Jennifer Magoulis are two musicians  who attended from interstate:

Erin Ellis from Western Australia -  Bass Trombone on camp

It was scary at first because all the other players seemed so good! The playing was really full-on and hard work. It was hard to sight read but by the end of the week my playing was really good. We played heaps of cool music. One of the fun pieces to play was called "Kongolela" – we had to memorise it and dance around the crowd playing it.

I made lots of friends and will keep in touch with them through email.

We did some fun things like going to the cinema to see "Nanny McPhee" and  going bowling – that was fun because we formed teams and no one really knew how to bowl.

The food was excellent. The accommodation was a bit like a prison: everyone had a small single room with a curtain.

Some of the kids got sick and were throwing up, including me, probably because we went to the corner shop for munchies and ate too much.

We (WA girls) got a bit homesick, but would do it again.

Erin is in Year Ten and plays in the Karatha Senior High School Band.

Jennifer Magoulis - Principal Cornet on camp

The camp was amazing. I'd like to point out that the conductors were REALLY amazing. Bryan's hard work and charming smile, teamed up with Maureen's creative and very energetic attitude, definitely made the camp worth while. From a Melbourne girl's point of view, I was amazed to see such a high standard amongst the younger players throughout the whole band down to the 3rd cornets. Having such a huge band was really exciting, especially having three rows of cornets!!!  

Not only did we rehearse several hours a day, but we had two social nights. We went to the movies the first night  and bowling the second. Many lucky people scored more than one strike, me included. 

A highlight for me was the intense table tennis competition between myself and Peter Younghusband (who was amazing and won several times) and Mark Fitzpatrick and I (who was pretty good, but he lost several times). Other sporting highlights included: a soccer match between three selected teams, swimming and many games of air hockey!!  

Jennifer plays solo cornet with Darebin City Brass – Preston Band in Victoria.

Congratulations to everyone involved with such a successful camp for 2006. I'm sure everyone is looking forward to next year – and perhaps there will be record numbers again!