Waikato families band together
Hamilton City Brass head to national championships
Next month the 2024 National Brass Band Championships will take place at the Pacific Festival of Brass in Manukau – a huge event for five musical Waikato families who make up over a third of the membership of Hamilton City Brass.
New Zealand’s brass band national championship is one of the oldest musical competitions in the world.
The first event was held at the Christchurch Drill Hall in 1880, with six bands competing. The audience of 2500 chose the Invercargill Garrison Band as the winner.
From July 10-13, more than two dozen bands over four senior grades and a youth division will converge on the Due Drop Events Centre to be judged on Sacred Item/hymn, Test selection and Own Choice, plus open and junior solo and ensemble pieces, and hit the streets for the Street March title.
Hamilton City Brass is preparing under the baton of musical director Todd Smith to contest the hotly contested A-grade section, with elite bands from around New Zealand and Australia.
For the Own Choice section, the band will premiere a 19-minute piece that has never been performed in the Southern Hemisphere.
Smith considers it the hardest piece the band has ever played.
“However, they are rising to the challenge, and I can’t wait for their performance on the contest stage,”
he said.
The band placed third in 2022 and fourth last year so will be looking for a solid placing this year, their first with Smith at the helm.
Brass banding is a family affair for
many of the Hamilton brass musicians currently spending weeknights and whole weekends rehearsing and preparing for the four-day competition.
Over a hundred years of family
brass playing have led mother and daughter Michelle Panko and Sarajane Flint to play together.
It started with family members performing in the St Hilda Colliery Brass Band from South Shields, near
Newcastle upon Tyne in Northern England from the early 1900s.
Flint has played for 21 years, including in Cambridge Brass, Te Awamutu Brass and Bras & Brass when her mum was the conductor.
Both play tenor horn and this is the first time they have played in the same section in the same band.
At a young age, George Humberstone encouraged his younger sister Elizabeth to join him in the Ō haupō School Brass Band learner group.
Since then they have played together in the Hamilton Auxiliary Brass and now in the senior band, Hamilton City Brass.
Having played four instruments over the years (cornet, tenor horn, euphonium and bass), the elder sibling now holds the Principal Eb Bass seat while his sister is a respected part of the back row cornet team.
Brass banding is an integral part of the Barr family’s life.
Malcolm began playing trumpet at age 10, joined Hamilton Auxiliary Brass a few months later, and was promoted to Hamilton City Brass at the age of 15 where he is still a member nearly 30 years later, currently holding the Principal Trombone seat.
Daughter Lizzie followed a similar pattern, receiving her first cornet lesson from her dad at a very young age then moving through the Brass Factory and into Hamilton Auxiliary Brass.
The 14-year-old is now one of Hamilton City Brass’ newest members, joining the band to perform at the National Championships this year, where she will also compete in the Under 15 Cornet solo competition.