2007 Australian National Band Championships - Retrospective: A - D Grade

A brief review of the A to D Grade sections, with plenty of photos.

A GRADE
Adjudicator: Ken MacDonald 

An ecstatic XLCR claim a hat-trick of Australian A Grade titles

Adjudicator, Ken MacDonald had an enormous task over the two days.  The concentration needed to focus fully for 8 hours straight is hugely demanding.  4BRDU spoke with Ken MacDonald after the events and asked how he was able to concentrate fully for so long.  His answer was simple....he loves listening to brass bands!

Brisbane Excelsior emerged as overall winners on the day - 5 points clear of its nearest rival, Kew Band Melbourne.  Unlike the previous two years, Excelsior walked away with the three of the four stage events - the Hymn, Test and Own Choice.  Footscray-Yarraville were the winners of this years stage march, with Kew Band Melbourne 2nd and XLCR third.  Phillipa Edwards, MD for Footscray was quick to offer her services as a stage march consultant to XLCR!

XLCR's performance of Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Peter Graham has been largely touted as the performance of the contest. 

Other highlights included:

• watching Bryan Hurdley in the percussion section for Cairns

• the spirit of Maureen Cameron's direction
• Kew's performance of Vienna Nights
• XLCR's timpanist, Adrian Dadds, crash through the timpani skin at the end of Terra Australis

• the musicianship of Phillipa Edwards leading Footscray Yarraville

Phillipa Edwards with Footscray Yarraville in action

Observations from the audience was the kiss on the cheek for Footscray-Yaraville's principal cornet from his musical director Phillipa Edwards after a wonderful performance of St Magnus (Kenneth Downie). A nice touch and this recognition was well rewarded in the results as this band is back in the top three. It was their march, ORB (Charles Anderson) that impressed the judge most with a winning spot.

It was also good to see Kew Band back in scintillating form at this level. Their own choice of Vienna Nights (Philip Wilby) was a firm crowd favourite with a real performance that was rewarded by a second placing by just one point in this section. Their consisitently high placings here will have some Kiwi bands worried come the NZ Championships in July.

Local band Hawthorn surprised many with only 21 brass on stage - one Eupho and one Baritone. Their stage layout was unique with the 'front row' cornets  standing at the back of the band for the entire time.

Hawthorn Band's unique stage set-up

An exceptionally long wait after the completion of the A grades of nearly two hours before the results were announced allowed the rumour mill to begin. Talk of protests made for good conversation over the odd soft drink at a nearby bar. All this came to nothing as no protests were lodged.

K&N Spring Gully Brass came a credible fourth.  A highlight of their performance was listening to the magical sound of David Thornton of Black Dyke on Euphonium.

K&N Spring Gully Brass

Chief judge Ken MacDonald was a little dissappointed that he never really got a total performance for the test piece Terra Australis (Martin Ellerby). He was looking for more shaping of phrases and more sympathetic interpretation of the "theme tune" Advance Australia Fair.  He was critical of tempos in the stage march which some bands decided to vary.

Warringah's Eupho section - their first time in A Grade

Worthy winners were Brisbane Excelsior who have the hatrick, and now looking for glory in New Zealand in July. Musical Director, Howard Taylor was delighted that we was awarded the win from the man who led Australia's most successful band Hawthorn for many years and this included the last hatrick in Australian banding. An emotional Taylor certainly enjoyed the very special moment.

Past and present Waitakere conductors meet on the street - Steven Booth, Andy Snell and Howard Taylor

B GRADE
Adjudicator: Ray Farr

First results through for the bands was B grade with winning band Hobart City's young conductor Simon Cawthorn (25) continuing an impressive meteoric rise for the Tasmaninan group. Only 18 months ago they were in the D grade with wins at the State Championships taking them through to the B grade recently. "I have a particularly young band of college students who have worked very hard these past six weeks of preparation - the last two weeks were frantic as we worked hard on our own choice London Overture (Phillip Sparke)" said Cawthorn.

Hobart City Brass

This grade turned out to be very closely contested between the top three bands with only 3 points separating the front runners.  For the overall championship, Hobart City just got its nose in front of Sutherland and finished the contest with a third in the Hymn, third in the Test, and first places on the second day in the own choice and stage march. 

Hall Village had a similar pattern of success with first places on the first day in the hymn and test selection and third places the next day in the march and own choice.

Sutherland takes the award for consistency with a second in every stage event.

Geoff and Julie Payne assume their respectives seats in Boroondara Brass - what a section!

The closest of the remaining 5 bands was Maroondah Brass - some 13 points behind Hall Village Brass.

Salisbury City from South Australia

C GRADE
Adjudicator: Eric Andersen

Geelong West Brass, conducted by Jeff Steele, were the C Grade Champions for 2007.  There was quite a large variance in consistency of results from one day to the next.  Geelong happened to have the best combination of results despite not winning any one of the stage events. They achieved 2nd place in the Hymn and Test, 4th in the Own Choice and 2nd in the Stage March.  Musical Director Jeff Steele has taken the band for seven years and commented to 4BRDU that the band had the benefit of many experienced players to perform their ambitious own choice Journey into Freedom (Eric Ball).

Geelong West Brass - winners of the C Grade Brass

Toronto Brass achieved 1st in the test selection but were unfortunately placed well down in the own choice, forcing them out of contention for the championship. 

Similarly, Advent Brass were placed 1st in the Own Choice but were awarded 17 points less the day before in the test selection.

 
D Grade
Adjudicator: Chris Earl

Fourteen bands, all from Victoria except for one, competed in the D Grade section making it the second largest event in the competition.

Darebin City Brass - Northern Brass, D Grade Champions

Darebin City Brass - Northern Brass, conducted by Andrew Power were clear winners with an stage aggregate 9 points ahead of second placegetter, City of Bendigo Brass conducted by Andrew Trewartha. City of Holroyd recieved the same aggregrate points as City of Bendigo Brass.  Based on a count back to the test selection, City of Bendigo were placed 2nd and City of Holroyd 3rd. 

4rth placed City of Frankston and its conductor, Kevin Morgan, were only one point behind the third placed band.

The winning band in the D grade were off the number one draw at 8am. Darebin City Brass - Northern Brass is the feeder band for their A grade band and was only formed 12 months ago under Andrew Power (20) and this was his first Nationals as a conductor. " We have a youth group that is trained by the legendary teacher Jack Kelly who is the real hero today. He has provided score of quality players over the generations and his help and advice has been tremendous in our preparation" said Power.

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