2007 New South Wales Brass Band Championships

Retrospective: Junior Grades

26 August
Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre
Adjudicator: Doug Trottman OAM

Band contests have an uncanny ability to surprise you in the ways you never expect them to. In the case of the 2007 New South Wales Brass Band Championships, that surprise (for 4BRDU at least) came in the way of the performances we heard from the three competing Junior bands over the weekend.

Whilst we were always expecting bucketloads of enthusiasm, we found ourselves blown away by the real quality of playing from these 3 young bands.

In the Junior C Grade Warringah Youth under John Saunders delivered a rendition of Holy Holy Holy that could have taught some of the senior bands we heard a thing or two about intonation.

The tiny youth of Warringah Youth

They made a full rich sound and with some very strong players around the stands could hold their own against quite a few open C grade bands. They opted to use Peter Graham's Dimensions as their own choice test piece, and despite a few niggling issues, left us quite thrilled to have heard such quality playing.  With their concert item Jubilation, Fantasy on American spirituals rounding out their performance, we certainly had them up there as one of the highlights of the weekend.

Warringah Youth

They of course walked away with the trophy, being the only band entered, but we suspect Warringah would have been a tough band to beat on any day.

John Saunders with Doug Trottman OAM

The Junior A grade provided for some entertaining competition between Willoughby and Gunnedah junior bands.

Gunnedah took to the stage first under Bruce Myers and put on a brilliant show, with all the fundamentals in place and some delightful touches of enthusiasm and musicianship.

Gunnedah's star percussionist

We thoroughly enjoyed their reading of the test piece, Philip Rutherford's Symphonic Impressions, and their own choice, Sparke's A Malvern Suite was equally as impressive.

Bruce Myers - who wouldn't be smiling in front of this great bunch of kids?

Willoughby perhaps never got quite up there with Gunnedah but from a very young band they made some exceptionally good sounds right off the bat.

Willoughby's trombone section - one of its strengths

Their soprano player was a star all day and the band backed up with some great rhythmic playing in the quicker sections. We were a touch disappointed with some of their slower playing - things didn't always flow as they should have, but nonetheless the performance was always full of vigour and purpose.

Willoughby Juniors

With Gunnedah coming away with the win we thought the adjudicator had made the right call and it was fantastic to see the younger players enjoying what was a well-deserved victory.

Gunnedah Shire Band

For us though, the real joy came from hearing first hand some of the finest Junior band playing we've ever come across. Rarely in the junior sections did we hear tuning problems and harshness of sound that was so irritatingly present in the open grade band sections. Gunnedah in particular ought to be congratulated for demonstrating just how important the basic principles of ensemble playing are, and how looking after those basics properly can lead to performances of the highest quality.