Gittins joins Waratah

Ashley Gittins is in fine form leading up to his performances with New South Wales band, Waratah Brass.

Current National Champion of Champions Soloist, Ashley Gittins from Brisbane will be featured in concert with Waratah Brass on Saturday 14th June at the Lake MacQuarie Performing Arts Centre at Warners Bay.

Ashley will play solos including Fantasy for Euphonium and Brass Band composed by Philip Sparke and the ever popular Better World by Norman Bearcroft.

One of the features of the program will be a first time performance for both Ashley and the band of a Euphonium Quartet, Ave Verum Corpus, a Mozart piece beautifully arranged with brass band accompaniment by Philip Sparke.

Ashley’s wonderful musical interpretation will be on display as he performs the ballad, Annie Laurie and the melody, The Holy Well, from Peter Graham’s On Alderley Edge.

Waratah Brass president Grahame Scott said: “We are very excited to have Ashley come to Newcastle to perform so soon after being crowned Champion of Champions soloist in Brisbane this year."

"We had the pleasure of working in concert with Ashley in 2005 and this is another opportunity for the brass lovers in Newcastle to hear a truly wonderfully gifted musician.”

A flugel has been stolen in Victoria on the eve a bands quest to compete in the Bendigo contest.

One of Victoria's oldest regional Victorian Band's has been the subject of the theft of its flugel players instruments.

The thief stole the instruments out of the players locked car in his locked garage, with only one day before the band is to compete in Bendigo.

Faced with maybe having to pull out of the contest due to no instrument available at short notice, the band approached Chris Bowman in his role as head of Yamaha's brass instruments group in this part of the world.

Chris and Yamaha were able to quickly source a brand new instrument and loan it to Creswick Municpal Band to use.

Band Secretary, Margaret Howell told 4BRDU: "We are extremely grateful to YAMAHA and would like to publicly thank them, and let the banding fraternity know about this generous gesture."

The organising committee for the 2009 Australian Nationals, has released information regarding nexts years Championships.

The Band Association of New South Wales is proud to announce the 2009 Australian National Band Championships will be held in Sydney over the Easter Long Weekend 9 – 13 April.

The Association extends a warm welcome to all Bands across Australia, New Zealand and from around the world.

The following schedule is subject to approval by the National Band Council of Australia at the Conference in July and any adjustments will be advised following that meeting.

The Schedule

The proposed schedule which was recently released has been revised and amended.

Thursday 9th April, ALL Solo and Party events
Friday 10th April, Open Grade Brass Hymn and Test
Saturday 11th April, Open Brass Street March (Sydney Royal Easter Show)
Saturday 11th April, Open Grade Concert Bands
Saturday 11th April, Junior Grade Brass Bands
Saturday 11th April, Gala Concert
Sunday 12th April 2009, Open Grade Brass Own Choice and Stage March
Monday 13th April 2009, Junior Grade Concert Bands

Specific details regarding timings, etc., will be provided closer to the event.

The Adjudicators

Professor David King has accepted an invitation to be chief brass adjudicator and Mr James Curnow accepted an invitation to be chief concert band Adjudicator.

Both adjudicators are two of the most “in demand” identities in the brass and wind band worlds. Together, these two gentlemen will bring vast experience, knowledge and expertise as well as wide adjudicating experience to our Nationals.

Gala Concert

Professor David King has accepted an invitation to be Artistic Director responsible for the organisation and co-ordination of the Gala concert.

Newly formed National Australia Brass will perform at this concert along with the Belles of Brass. There will be a wind band performing and discussions are currently underway.

The Venues

All Onstage and Solo events of “The Championships” are to be held at the Seymour Theatre Centre Sydney (www.seymour.usyd.edu.au).

The centre is a great venue with two large concert halls. The main hall provides seating for approximately 720 with the second hall seating about 620. The third, much smaller hall accommodates about 200.

Several large rooms are available within the centre to serve as halls for the Solo events and warm-up rooms.

The Centre also has a parking station with ample room behind the centre for coach parking.

The Centre is located approximately 10 minutes walk from Redfern and Central Stations and 15 minutes from Newtown Station. Busses regularly pass by the centre along City Road.

Whilst the Seymour Theatre Centre has a café, bar and snack shop and will be providing BBQ lunches and sandwiches over the weekend, there are also many eating and drinking venues around the centre. These include the restaurants on King Street Newtown, three pubs within 200 metres of the Centre and the food outlets located nearby on Broadway and in the Broadway Shopping Complex.

Yes..there will be Marching

The required Street Marching component of “The Championships” is to be held as a programmed event at the Sydney Royal Easter Show.
Transport to the Showground is either by train (Olympic Park Station right at the front door), car or bus/coach.

The Sydney Royal Easter Show is designating this day as their “Community Band Day” with the Parade Of Bands in the morning and on-stage concerts throughout the afternoon. Free entry to the Show will be provided for all participants and chaperones along with ample bus and coach parking.

Ticketing

There is no plan for ”free” entry to any of the on stage events.

The proposal is to provide each competing band with the opportunity to pre-purchase a set allocation of “Season Tickets” for a generously discounted price of $5.00.

By pre purchasing a “Season Ticket” you can go to any on stage event throughout the duration of the contest - except for the Gala Concert – for just $5.00.

The discounted Season Pass can only be pre-purchased at this price from the Band Association of NSW. If, on the day, a person doesn’t have a ticket, they will not be allowed entry to the hall and will have to purchase a day pass.

The main reasons for this are that the doors will be managed by Seymour Centre staff along with the fact that many bands no longer have distinctive uniforms. Allowing and monitoring free entry for members in uniform becomes an impossible task.

Accommodation, Travel, Rehearsal Venue and Coach / Bus Hire Bookings

The Band Association of New South Wales would like to introduce Nicole Randall of NRG Tourism (associated with Simon Hocking Travel) who would be only too pleased to look after all Accommodation, Travel, Rehearsal Venue and Coach / Bus hire arrangements.

NRG Tourism can arrange accommodation from five-star Luxury apartments through to Dormitory / University style accommodation.

They can book rehearsal venues and are well-positioned to book buses and transfers along with any sightseeing tours a Band may wish to take.

For further details, contact: Nicole Randall by email at band09@nrgtourism.com
or ph: 0422 905 498 to discuss your particular requirements.

Sponsors

Already, major sponsorship has been obtained from Yamaha Music Australia Pty Ltd, Kurt Jacob and Co Pty Ltd, and NRG Tourism.

Live Streaming

Following the success of the Live Streaming by “themusicpage.com” we are pleased to advise that we are in negotiation with the Music Page for an expanded service to include streaming of ALL the events of the Championships.

Website

The contest website is due to be launched later this week.

In the meantime, bands interested in this event should complete and return the “Expression of Interest Form”, which can be obtained from secretary@bandnsw.com