News

Nelson City Brass achieved an impressive win over the weekend at the National Brass Band Championships held in Napier. The band emerged as the Champion C grade brass band in New Zealand, beating the other competing bands by a significant margin. The band received a first placing in the hymn, test and own choice making them the clear overall winners. They received the NZBBA Challenge Cup for the Champion C Grade band and Nigel Weeks, the band’s musical director, received the RNZAF Wigram Band Trophy for the Conductor of the Champion C Grade band.

In addition to this, the band and their drum major, Andrew Clark, achieved a third placing in the C grade for the street march event. Logan Ford, one of the band’s solo cornet players, was first place in the junior cornet solos and an impressive second place in the junior “champion of champions”, an event which showcases some of the top under 19 year old brass musicians in New Zealand.

This has been a long awaited win for Nelson City Brass, with their last overall win at a National Contest occurring in 2000. This is also the first time the band has taken out all three events and adds to the impressive clean sweep victory that they achieved in the regional contest this year.

The band has flourished under the baton of new musical director Weeks who took over conducting the band earlier this year. Contest adjudicator Associate Professor Peter Adams commented that the standard of all the competing bands was impressive but “one band stood out as a clear winner”. He praised the balance of the sound Nelson City Brass produced, the quality of their soloist players and treatment of the music they played.

The band will now prepare for their upcoming “Last Night of the Proms” concert on Saturday 3 rd and Sunday 4 th September at the Theatre Royal Nelson. Featuring high quality music from Nelson City Brass and special guest artists this will be a great opportunity for people in Nelson to come along and hear their brass band. Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for students. Available from the Theatre Royal Nelson.

For further information please contact us through our contact page.

Nelson City Brass took an unexpected win at the Nelson-Marlborough West Coast regional brass competition over the weekend.

The C grade band won the overall competition with three first place wins, one second and one third in various sections.

Band secretary Wayne Jennens said the band had put in a lot of work but did not expect to place as highly as they did.

“Marlborough is always the top band, they are an A-grade band, Timaru are a B-grade band, we’re a C-grade band and so for us to actually beat Marlborough is quite an accomplishment,” he said.

“We were quite ecstatic. It certainly made all the hard work that we put in worthwhile.”

Jennens said the band’s overall score was 30 points ahead of some other bands, which was “unheard of”.

“We wanted to use it as a platform for the nationals, just to gauge where we were at so we certainly exceeded all expectations,” he said.

“It’s just a matter of keeping our feet on the ground, not getting too big headed over it. We’ve got to build from what we’ve achieved and go to the next level.”

Jennens said the band have been under new conductor Nigel Weeks who helped them to victory.

“Nigel’s been there since the beginning of this year and he’s made a huge difference.”

Competition adjudicator Kevin Dell said he was impressed by the “technical ability of the band, the quality of the sound they produced and the musicianship displayed”.

The band were excited to take the unexpected win but it seems beating Marlborough was the best part of the weekend.

“It was certainly quite an achievement, we’ve never beaten Marlborough in the competition, they’re two grades ahead of us,” Jennens said.

“Everyone’s come home on a high.”

Nelson City Brass now look to the national competition at Napier in July.

Article written by TASHA LEOV from Nelson Mail.

Photo credit to MARTIN DE RUYTER

The National Band of New Zealand is heading to the Netherlands to take part in the Brass Band World Championships in July 2017.

The 33 piece ensemble, with members from all over New Zealand including Nelson, will be performing in Kerkrade, a Dutch town on the border with Germany.

New Zealand composer Gareth Farr will write a work as part of the programme that will be performed the Netherlands.

Last year the band did a three week tour of China and South Korea, tour organiser Nigel Weeks, of Nelson, said. Weeks will be joined on the tour by Nelson musicians Steve and Alice Rudhall.

For the 2017 adventure, the band will rehearse for two long weekends in June and October and in April 2017, and right before they leave.

The band members are excited about the next tour as they will be playing against some of the best brass band in the world, said Weeks.

The band, first formed in 1953, has a record of international success with international tours visiting Great Britain, Canada, the United States of America, the Netherlands, France, Russia, Greece, Japan, China, South Korea and Australia.

The National Band showcases New Zealand’s best brass and percussion players, selected from 50 community bands throughout the nation, and its unique brass repertoire at international concert and contest events.

Article written by SARA MEIJ from Nelson Mail.