2006 Australian National Championships

Preview: C, D and Junior Grade

With only a few days to go till the Australian National Band Championships in Brisbane, Queensland, bands are busy and excited with last-minute rehearsals and travel preparations.

These grades will be playing in the Ithaca Auditorium, on the second floor of the City Hall. Bands will play their Hymn and Test on Friday, commencing with Junior A Grade first up at 8.30am. On Saturday morning bands will start the day off with the Parade of Bands along George Street at 8am, heading back to the hall afterwards to complete their program with the Own Choice and March. Junior A Grade is the first to commence their Saturday on-stage performance at 9.30am.

The adjudicators:

Brian Hurdley will adjudicate C Grade and Junior A Grade. Phil Davis will adjudicate D Grade and Junior C Grade.

C Grade – TEST: Northern Landscapes (Peter Graham)

Brisbane Brass 2 (Queensland)
Conductor: Greg Aitken

Principal Players
Soprano: Josh Carseldine
Cornet: Chris Canning
Flugel: Liz Aitken
Tenor Horn: Stephanie Jeffrey
Baritone: Rebecca Ramsden
Trombone: Luke Coonan
Euphonium: Teegan Rutt
EEb Bass: Ralphine Harris
Percussion: Jane Iszlaub

Brisbane Brass' pieces are all coming together and Greg is confident that the band is well prepared for Easter.  The players have enjoyed the terrific Test, although it certainly took some work initially.

The band enjoyed a weekend camp with guest tutors. There are some great new players to Brisbane Brass 2 who are fitting in well. The band is looking forward to playing well and will be happy with just that!

Maitland City Brass (New South Wales)
Conductor: Bruce Rowlatt

Maitland City Brass is playing well under their new conductor. Bruce has been with the band for about ten months and in that time there has been enormous growth in numbers; from about 8 to 28!

Bruce is delighted with the progress of the band. The players have enjoyed the challenge of the Test, and have been particularly tested by the third movement.

Maitland City Brass have had several full-day rehearsals, although with many band members working shifts in the coal mines there is not always a full band. Sadly, the flugelhorn player's father was unexpectedly rushed to hospital and the band has organised an emergency permit.

This growing band is really looking forward to the Nationals.

St Marys Band Club Brass Band (New South Wales)
Conductor: Robert Pearce

St Marys Band Club (C-Grade) is essentially a junior band with a sprinkling of senior players who provide good role-models to help progress the junior players. There are also a couple of the juniors who have turned the age of 19 and are playing instruments on which there are no positions available in the A-Grade senior band.
 
This band first competed three and a half years ago in the NSW Junior C-Grade Championships. They competed in the Senior D-Grade Championships at the Nationals last year in Adelaide, and won.

There are lots of family ties in the band which gives the band a really collaborative atmosphere. Conductor, Bob Pearce, and senior players Ken Bradley (A Grade conductor), Rex Campbell, Bronwyn Bradley and Mark Howcroft all have children or connections with the children in the band. Their musical connections with each other go back more than 30 years. Other family involvement includes five from the Huempel family, four from the Rynn family and three from the Williams'.
 
All sections of the band have been working hard and improvement since the last Nationals has been conspicuous. Rehearsals for Brisbane began with a weekend camp at the beginning of February. Lots of practice has ensued, made enjoyable by the fact that the Test Piece is musically satisfying and challenging, yet achievable for C Grade.  The bands Own Choice has thrown up its own challenges too.
 
Regardless of the results in Brisbane, the journey has been a thoroughly fulfilling one and the St Marys Band Club Brass Bands wish everyone involved in the Nationals a fruitful weekend.

Sunshine Brass (Queensland)
Conductor: Adrian Frost

Principal Players
Soprano: Karen Smith
Cornet: Adrian Van Gaalen
Flugel: Jodie Smith
Tenor Horn: Paul Smith
Baritone: Archie Robertson
Trombone: Megan Dodds
Euphonium:Tim Dodds
EEb Bass: John Loxton
Percussion: Ryan Jacobs

With one week to go from the competition, Adrian Frost was still looking forward to having a full band at rehearsals. There have been a number of illnesses in the band and the line-up has taken a while to settle due to braces, illness and other difficulties. In spite of this, the band has been rehearsing well.

The band has enjoyed the Test , considering it to be one of the better choices in recent years, and look forward to doing their best at the competition.

Surfers Paradise (Queensland)
Conductor: Alan Trueman
 
Surfers Paradise Brass has had a pleasing preparation for the Nationals. The band has had the services of Dr Noel Cassels as coach for two weekends and the standard has risen considerably over these weekends. The band is strong in all sections and is lead by Brenden McLean as Principal Cornet, Jessica Bitossi on Soprano, Graham Robinson on Flugal, Di Fox on Solo Horn, Gordon Richmond as Principal Euphonium and Paul Radford on First Trombone. Several new players who have joined the band this year have brought increased energy. 

Surfers Paradise Brass looks forward to a great weekend of competition and music-making and would like to wish all competitors the best for a great weekend.

Toronto Brass (New South Wales)
Conductor: Tim O'Hearn

Principal Players
Soprano: Amanda Kaiser
Cornet: Johnathan Smith
Flugel: Greg Smith
Tenor Horn: Chris Smith
Baritone: Barbara Tierney
Trombone: Rowan McBride
Euphonium: Dave Tayler
EEb Bass: Philip Smith
Percussion: Callum Creed

Rehearsals going well for Toronto Brass, however due to a number of shift workers within the band, a full rehearsal is not regular. The band has met the challenge of the test; it has been technically challenging for them but the players have enjoyed the nice melodic passages.

Toronto Brass has had a bit of a reshuffle with key players due to one player being unable to attend the competition. This has resulted in changes to the Euphoniums and Baritones, but these players have met the challenge admirably.  The band was also light-on in the  back row cornet section, but have brought in a player from the junior band who is just ten years old!

Toronto Brass have been having Sunday rehearsals since the beginning of February, and have enjoyed the social BBQs afterwards. The players are quietly optimistic regarding the bands ability.

Yellow Cabs Bayside Brass (Queensland)
Conductor: Corey Clarke

Principal Players
Soprano: John Palmer
Cornet: David Bellis
Flugel: Neil Goodacre
Tenor Horn: Roger Roache
Baritone: Rob Cerezo
Trombone: Ivan Cocking/Trevor Simmons
Euphonium: John Krebs
EEb Bass: Bill Sharp
Percussion: Andrew Gorring

Yellow Cabs Bayside Brass has been sponsored by Yellow Cabs for nearly six years now.  The band really enjoys their sponsorship and appreciates what The Yellow Cab Co. Qld. do for them.

Rehearsals have been going well for the band. The players have enjoyed the Test although some parts have required some work. Yellow Cabs Bayside Brass have been been fortunate to have the expertise of Ivan Cocking to conduct them for over two weeks.

The Musical Director, Corey Clarke, and his wife Katrina had a baby son on 24th March 2006, hence Corey taking time off from Band. Also, the Solo Horn player and Second Trombone player moved to the Sunshine Coast, independently, and now are only able to attend rehearsals once per week.
 
The band looks forward to their performance and hopes for some practical comments from the adjudicator.

Unfortunately, 4BRDU has not been able to get comments for this Preview for Bankstown City Brass Band and Royal Hifofua Tongan Brass.

D Grade – TEST: Voices of Youth ( Edward Gregson)

Beenleigh Brass Band (Queensland)
Conductor: Gordon Beitz
 
The Beenleigh Brass Band has, over the past few years, concentrated its effort on the training and development of brass musicians - both young and not-so-young.  They are very fortunate to have a school instrumental music teacher in the band.  With the persuasion of one of their not-so-young learners and the introduction of young people from local surrounding school music programs, the Beenleigh Brass Band has been become very busy with three separate rehearsal sessions weekly for learners, intermediate and the senior band. The Senior Band now comprises many of these young and not-so-young developing musicians.

The Nationals 2006 will be a new experience for many of the players who have never seen a brass band competition. Rehearsals have become a new challenge - for both the Musical Director and players - with continual improvement of the Test for the contest. With some more experienced players sitting alongside and mentoring the newer musicians, the band is very much looking forward to participating in the contest.

Brisbane Brass 3 (Queensland)
Conductor: Bill Barker

Principal Players
Soprano: Brendan Young
Cornet: Adam Kiole
Flugel: Anna Sri
Tenor Horn: Megan Harmston
Baritone: Cherie Taylor/Matthew Cuthbertson
Trombone: Daniel Kerrison/Adrian Webb
Euphonium: Melanie Balzano
Eb Bass: Elise Mills  

Brisbane Brass 3 have been very busy leading up to this contest as they are competing in Open D Grade and Junior C Grade.  After the usual early resistance to the Test pieces from some of the younger players, all members seem to be enjoying them now. The pieces also suit the band's standard very well. The band's preparation has included a weekend camp at the Sunshine Coast (just north of Brisbane), which greatly improved the level of performance, and also got their marching under control.

City of Holroyd Band (New South Wales)
Conductor: Mark Strykowski

Principal Players
Soprano: Kevin King
Cornets: Greg Longhurst / Anneke Rimmer
Flugel: Grant Harris
Tenor Horn: Mark Harries
Baritone: Steve Jansen
Trombone: Geoff Brazel
Euphonium: Ben Lindsay
EEb Bass: Beth Hobbs
Percussion: Murray King

The Holroyd D Grade Band has had an exciting preparation for this contest and are looking forward to the trip to Brisbane to compete in D Grade. Several newly signed players will be making their debut contest performance with the band in Brisbane.

Some extra evening and weekend rehearsal sessions were organised for the band culminating in a Pre-Nationals concert combined with the A-Grade band.

The band would like to acknowledge the input and assistance from Steve Lawrence (Brisbane Brass) through his regular visits on BBb Tuba. Steve is a life-member of the Holroyd Band and as an ex-Holroyd Band member remains a true friend of the band.

In 2006 some exciting players to watch out for include: Dominic Longhurst and Simone Yow on Cornet, Steve Janson on Baritone, Lauren Armstrong on Horn and Peter Gibbons on 2nd Percussion.

How many bands can boast a mother/daughter duo AND a father/son duo in the same band? Holroyd is also very proud of its father/daughter, father/son, mother/son, brother/sister, brother/brother, mother/son/daughter, husband/wife, husband/wife/daughter relationships - all as playing members throughout the band.

Warwick City Band (Queensland)
Conducter: Ian Macdonald

Warwick City Band is located two hours South West of Brisbane. The band is celebrating their 140th anniversary this year. Two years ago the band was low in numbers, with only eight players, but this year they will go on stage with 32 players!

Ian Macdonald is the acting conductor and most of the band are youth.  Preparation has been one big party and rehearsals are a great social environment.  The band has put in hours of practice and they have had great fun preparing. Only four of the players have ever contested before, the Second Trombone was previously a drummer and have only been playing trombone for four months.

Whilst Ian says he has no expectation of a winning result, he also says he is the proudest man in Australia: in the last two years the band has only lost three youngsters. Warwick City Band gets no assistance from the school program at all, and they have built the band themselves!

Yagoona District Band (New South Wales)
Conductor: Norman Short

Principal Players
Soprano: Erin Barlow:
Cornet: Bruce Batey
Flugel: Colin Bungate
Tenor Horn: Wendy Stenning & Belinda Madden
Baritone: Sandy Robertson
Trombone: Jodie Stenning
EEb Bass: Ian Newham
Percussion/Drum Major: Phil Mead

Rehearsals commenced for Yagoona District Band in mid January with a full band from February onwards. Since March, an extra weekend rehearsal has been held each week.

The band has been fortunate to experience a workshop with the conductor from Wollongong City Brass, Mr Andy Yule. Andy has been in Australia for a couple of years now, previously playing Euphonium in a Championship Section band in Great Britain. Andy took no prisoners, rehearsing the band like he would his B Grade band, and lifted the standard with a positive and happy manner.

To compliment the band's time with Andy, Yagoona and Wollongong were featured in a combined concert at the Padstow RSL Club in late March. Yagoona also had another opportunity to perform their National pieces in an evening concert at The Salvation Army, Dulwich Hill. The band has been busy with community engagements this year, which has given the players a balance between the competition pieces and lighter ‘playout' music.

Yagoona District band is looking forward to the opportunity to compete in their first Nationals for ten years. Entering in the Nationals has lifted the band's morale, musically and socially.

Look out for Yagoona members in their new traveling uniform: polo shirts, tops and jackets, which look great, with a new modern logo on them.

Junior A Grade – TEST: Lyonesse (Dobson)

City of Wollongong (New South Wales)
Conductor: Tara Grimm

Principal Players
Soprano: Sarah Brown
Cornet: Sarah (Molly) Meldrum
Flugel: Angelee Fitzgibbons
Tenor Horn: Nicky Abkievic (permit from Holroyd)
Baritone: Chris Nairn
Trombone: Paul Foster
Euphonium: Andrew Comensoli
BBb Bass: John Foster
Percussion: Steven Dodd

Rehearsals have been going well for Wollongong and the band has been very dedicated with rehearsals all weekend, most weekends. The band had a Practice-a-thon on April 1-2, where they transformed the band hall into a movie theatre from 11pm and watched movies on the big screen (back wall) of the hall, slept on the floor, had a BBQ breakie, and marched from 8.30am....a lot of work and a great social weekend as well.

Wollongong had a guest conductor early on, Jonothan Gatt, and some help from some experienced senior players, Don Callahan and Phil Eades.

The band had to do a lot of recruiting due to the solo horn player being overseas, and three members of one family (being Eb Tuba, Rep cornet and 1st/Solo horn) leaving at the beginning of year, resulting in some major holes in the junior line-up.

Wollongong is going to Nationals without a full crew, but with a very excited and dedicated one. There are members who travel from Newcastle, Nowra and The Oaks to Wollongong just to play with the band, sometimes spending five hours on a train. 

The band really likes the Test. This is, in every interpretation of the word, a 'test'. It really has pushed the band but it is an exceptional piece with a fantastic story behind it of the lost city of Lyonesse, 1099.; it is very descriptive and the band is really enjoying it.

Everyone gets along famously and the band is a happy bunch. The players are all getting into the Nationals spirit by being a little outrageous, but those of you up there will know when you the band what this means!

City of Wollongong Junior Band will go to this competition very prepared and will do their best.

Gunnedah Shire Band (New South Wales)
Conductor: Danny Alexander

Principal Players
Soprano: Courtney Jamieson      
Cornet: Caitlin Morgan
Flugel: Dian Stewart
Tenor Horn: Alison Gumbleton
Baritone: Kate McCormack 
Trombone: Liz McEvoy
Euphonium: Rebecca Gacui 
EEb Bass: Anthony Rowe
Percussion: David Gauci

Gunnedah Shire Band has been working very hard and improving steadily with each rehearsal. The band has definitely enjoyed the Test: it is well scored, and a highly detailed piece. It is well suited as a Test - challenging every section, particularly the cornets and percussion. The first few run-throughs were a little apprehensive, however the band has come to realise how brilliant the work is. It is extremely challenging for the grade, and Gunnedah hope to do the piece justice on the day.

It is quite normal to frequently lose key players in a junior band, as they are usually the oldest members. Since last Nationals Gunnedah have lost five key players, including their top three cornets due to age limit. This has knocked about five years off the average age (and experience) of the cornet section, however they have worked really hard over the last 12 months and have recovered well.

Gunnedah certainly hopes to be competitive in the section.

Willoughby City Band (New South Wales)
Conductor: Andrew Hulme

Rehearsal have been great; Andrew has been really enjoying preparing the band and thinks that the members have been getting a lot out of rehearsals.

Andrew is very happy with the band's progress. The test is quite difficult for the lower parts and he's really pleased with the way the band members have tackled it.

This is Andrew's first contest with the band so preparation has been different to what they are used to. The band has had some workshops, tutorials and a great concert in the Willoughby Town Hall.

Andrew truly believes that Willoughby Junior Brass Band will go out on stage and present a very musical program and play musically;

"to be perfectly honest, I'm not phased in what position or ranking we have but the bigger picture - the wonder of music. We'll enjoy ourselves on stage and will be happy with the way we play."

Junior C Grade – TEST: The Seasons (Philip Wilby)

Brisbane Brass 3 (Queensland)
Conductor: Bill Barker

Principal Players
Soprano: Brendan Young
Cornet: Adam Kiole
Flugel: Anna Sri
Tenor Horn: Megan Harmston
Baritone: Cherie Taylor/Matthew Cuthbertson
Trombone: Daniel Kerrison/Adrian Webb
Euphonium: Melanie Balzano
Eb Bass: Elise Mills  

Brisbane Brass 3 have been very busy leading up to this contest as they are competing in Open D Grade and Junior C Grade.  After the usual early resistance to the Test pieces from some of the younger players, all members seem to be enjoying them now. The pieces also suit the band's standard very well. The band's preparation has included a weekend camp at the Sunshine Coast (just north of Brisbane), which greatly improved the level of performance, and also got their marching under control.

Warringah Youth Band (New South Wales)
Conductor: John Saunders
 
Warringah Youth Band are very happy to be going to Brisbane with a full band and a very keen and enthusiastic full percussion section.

For six players, Brisbane will be their first contest, but sadly the last run-out for Christie Rae and Kimberley Lovell (current NSW Young Musician of the year) due to upcoming 19th Birthday celebrations.
 
The band has been working hard but finding the Test demanding. Warringah has doubts about the suitability of the choice of Test for Junior C Grade.
 
John Saunders will no doubt have the band ready to meet the challenge. The enthusiasm of the Warringah Youth Band will guarantee a strong and spirited performance on the day!