Auckland's Leading Wind Ensembles Celebrate 40 Yrs

Auckland's Leading Wind Ensembles Celebrate 40th Anniversary

The Auckland Wind Orchestra and Auckland Youth Symphonic Band celebrate their 40th Anniversary in a gala concert at Epsom's Raye Freedman Arts Centre. The concert starts at 7.30pm on Saturday 27th October. Door sales are $20 or, for students and seniors, $15. Former members are invited to a reunion function from 3pm.

The Auckland Wind Orchestra and Auckland Youth Symphonic Band are to celebrate forty years of music-making in a gala concert at the Raye Freedman Arts Centre, located at Epsom Girls Grammar School.

"It never crossed my mind that we'd be celebrating our fortieth anniversary," says founding conductor Hugh Dixon. "In the 1960s, I saw a need for a band to cater for those young wind musicians who, in conventional orchestras, would play only a few notes and then have to count fifty bars of rests before they could play again!"

Dixon, then an itinerant brass teacher, formed what would become the Auckland Youth Symphonic Band in 1967. Its goal was to assist in the development of woodwind and brass performers.

"It's a marvellous outlet for young people," says Rod McLeay, who has served as Music Director of the AYSB since 1978. "It offers the chances to make new friends, to play a wide range of music in a non-school situation and to perform in a large group. But most of all, it's fun!"

The Auckland Wind Orchestra started as the AYSB's senior division, and the two ensembles are still united under the banner of one incorporated society.

"Auckland needs the AWO to showcase the living repertoire of the wind band," says guest conductor Peter Thomas, who served as the AWO's Music Director from 1995 to 1999. "The AWO and AYSB offer ongoing performance opportunities for woodwind, brass and percussion musicians from throughout our region. Community musicians are important to making the community a better place."

Both ensembles have long strings of notable achievements including national and international tours, performances before royalty and many gold awards at national concert band festivals.

The Fortieth Anniversary Gala Concert features both the AYSB under Rod McLeay and the AWO under Peter Thomas. Hugh Dixon, who celebrates his 80th birthday later this year, will make a special guest appearance at the conductor's podium. The programme ranges from popular favourites to colourful originals, including a new fanfare composed especially for the occasion by AWO organiser, Matthew Crawford.

The concert starts at 7.30pm on Saturday 27th October. Door sales are $20 or, for seniors and students, $15. The Raye Freedman Arts Centre is located at the Silver Rd entrance to Epsom Girls Grammar School on Gillies Ave.

Earlier in the day, former members are invited to "Nostalgic Noises" which is a chance to have "a bit of a hoot" in the setting of a musical reunion. Hugh Dixon will conduct music that he's especially arranged for the event. He says, "there was a deep bond with my former members up until I gave up the conductorship in 1977. I look forward to conducting as many of them as possible again when they meet the current members of the two groups."

Website: www.awo.co.nz

ENDS

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