Wellington Brass Band Claims Australian Title

Wellington Brass Band Claims Australia National Brass Band Title

WELLINGTON Brass Band has gone some way to balancing the ledger in trans Tasman rivalry, winning the Australian National Brass Band Championships in Sydney over Easter weekend.

The Wellington Brass Band battled with 15 other Brass Bands from Australia, winning three of the four band events in the competition, with second place in the other. The Wellington band won outright with a five point gap between them and their nearest competitor Brisbane Excelsior who were the two time defending champions.

The competition held over four days at Easter, was the first time the Wellington band has won the Australian Championships. The win marked the first time in over ten years the Fireman's Helmet Nation trophy would make a move across the Tasman, and the first in 20 years a New Zealand band would hold both National Championship titles. Success in major competitions is becoming a familiar theme for Wellington's young band. Led by musical director David Bremner over the past nine years, the band has risen from obscurity to win the previous two New Zealand National contests, and regularly enjoys stellar success in the National solo competitions as well.

The band's Manager Leighton Roberts described the most recent victory in Australia as "The perfect end to a very, hard, and commited 6-7 months" explaining, "After our successful defense of the NZ Nationals we were invited to the Australian competition. We collectively decided to accept that invitation, which is massive commitment both musically and financially." The band has been fundraising for six months solid to represent the city and country across the ditch, "You may have seen us on the Cricket World Cup fan trail and on the big stage at Cuba Dupa" Leighton says, "We're just thrilled with our performances through all the events, we have a lot of young fellas in the band, students, and also more seasoned players, so to see them all step up and perform well, after all the hard work of getting over there was simply fantastic."

The Wellington Brass Bands now looks forward to their next performance following on from victory titled "Made in NZ". Held on May 9th at St Andrew's on the Terrace at 7.30pm, the concert will include a world premier concerto by Anthony Ritchie.

Wellington Brass are also looking forward to announcing details of their major fundraising event Oktoberfest: The Bavarian Showdown later this month.

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