Spring Newsletter 2016

WELCOME Dear friends of the Band After over 100 years, we’ve finally decided to start a regular newsletter to keep the community informed as to what is happening with our fantastically successful band from the Eastern Bay of Plenty. In every edition we will also put a spotlight on a band or family member. Our goal is to produce this newsletter quarterly and this will be full of what has happened, what is happening and other important news. We would like to welcome Gary Bilton into our Band. Gary now lives in Papamoa and has been a New Zealand champion on many occasions. We are very lucky to have players of this quality keen to join our band. WHAT HAS HAPPENED?

2nd in B Grade at New Zealand Brass Band Championships in Napier by 0.5 of a point

Chris Lawrence 3rd Championship Cornet

Hiro Kobiashi 3rd Open Soprano

3rd Open Ensemble

Lachlan Spence 1st Junior Horn & 3rd Junior Champion of Champions

Liam Bewley 1st Junior Trombone

Jeshua Oram 1st Under 15 Other Instruments

Lachlan Spence & Leo Read 1st Junior Duet

Liam Bewley & Jeshua Oram 2nd Junior Duet

Leo Read 2nd Junior Trombone

Junior Quartet 1st & 2nd

Courtney Wilson 3rd Under 15 Cornet

Clark Spence, William Herewini, Courtney Wilson, Lachlan Spence, Leo Read, Liam Bewley selected for NZ Secondary Schools Band (most in NZ from any one band)

Chris Lawrence and Luke Spence selected for National Band of NZ to attend World Champi-onships in Holland in 2017

Supreme Award winner for Trust Power Community Awards Whakatane District

Stephen Clayton NZ Administrator of the Year Award

Waikato Bay of Plenty Champion Band

Most successful band for solo and party events at the Waikato Bay of Plenty Championships

EBOPDS Brass Band performed at the Whakatane District Council to welcome students from our sister city ‘Kamagaya’ Japan

WHAT IS HAPPENING?

NZ Secondary Schools Band – late September

Carols by Candlelight – December 11th

Christmas Carols under the tree (Ohope) – December 9th

Auditions and selection for 2017 NZ Youth Band

Preparations for end of year concert and an early national contest in 2017

Early 2017 attending the National Trust Power Awards in Rotorua BAND ROOM CHANGES Over the past two months we have been incredibly fortunate to receive a grant from Energy Trust to allow us to start the planned alterations to our 60 year old band room, which is well overdue! Due to this grant, we now have adequate lighting and air conditioning. The next phase for us is to start upgrading various parts of the band room.

ebop brass Commerce Street, P O Box 630, Whakatane 3158

Phone 021 248 1646

MEET THE BAND Denting the Silverware: Chris and Liz Lawrence Ten days before national contest, 5pm on a Friday night, a soft cornet gig bag on the floor at the bottom of the stairs, tucked care-fully out of the way of family traffic. Reaching for the light switch, and tripping on the laundry (Liz’s fault) Chris very firmly placed his right foot on his Yamaha Xeno cornet rendering it totally useless. The tears didn’t come till he looked in the gig bag, valves crushed, bell and lead pipe hanging in the breeze. Chris cried, Liz cried, the girls cried, everyone cried. However the calm, cool and steadfast nature of our lead solo cornet took over. He simply took his spare old cornet and proceeded to win yet again the best soloist in B grade, come a credible 3rd in the demanding open cornet championship and play an absolutely tear jerking, emotional and beautiful slow melody at the contest. Chris Lawrence is the cornet player we would all aspire to be. He stays cool under stress, knows he has done the homework and practice required to nail those high notes and leads the band with his beautiful sound. Both Liz and Chris have come to EBOP from the Navy band, both professional musicians. Liz now on 1st horn, having at various times played solo, 1st, and 2nd horn, both tenor and bass trombone, and wondering where she will end up next. Maybe percussion or even tuba, she jokes. She likes a challenge and fills any seat with her humor, warmth and dedicated playing. She laughs that the bands test music is determined by which seat Liz is on, she always has a challenging opening of the piece or movement. Look at Lowery 2nd movement. It was all Liz, big 1st horn moment. Chris comes from a ‘generations of brass’ family. His Dad was in the Army band and Chris was born in Singapore. The family moving back to Burnham with Chris and his twin sister as babies. He began playing in the great tradition of the Salvation Army when he was old enough to hold an instrument. Always a cornet player he joined the Artillery band, then later studied trumpet at Auckland Uni-versity 1996- 1998. Here on trumpet he broke the glass ceiling of top C. With many hours of playing every day he became a stronger player with a big sound, and a big range., he was practicing at least 2 hours every day, as well as playing in his classes. This hard work led to a seat in the Navy band, several Auckland bands and then to EBOP. Liz comes from a non-musical family. Her interest in brass was sparked not from hearing a fabulous cornet soloist but because her friend vanished once a week to brass lessons at school in Wanganui. Curious, she joined in on cornet. Two weeks later she smashed her face on the jungle gym, and switched to tenor horn because of scarring on her lip. The family then moved to Whakatane, and she met Alan Spence and the then Whakatane Citizens Band. Initially a shy player, she practiced at home in her wardrobe with something pushed into the bell of her horn, or when parents were out. The first time they heard her perform was when she won the under 19-horn solo. Third time in that solo section, she went from last, then 2nd last to winning. Three years was all it took. That’s determination. Winning most of the under 19 cups over several years, Liz had her share of denting the silverware by crashing her car on the Ohope hill just after she had collected several cups from being engraved. Her tenor horn and various trophies were strewn over the fields below the road. Lucky she lived to play again. After school Liz went into the navy band on French horn, again her face let her down and several ripped ligaments led to a switch to trombone. She learnt to play trombone including bass clef and the shifts in 10 days. They met in Navy band 1999. Chris coming down with Liz to help out EBOP in 2006, he played tenor horn for provincials. They both knew that Whakatane was the place to settle, to bring up kids and be in the band. They have a nice family triangle in this area of Ro-torua, Tauranga and Ohope. EBOP has won them over as a family band, light on politics with not too much stress and a genuine caring group of fellow musicians. They are always so impressed by the ability of youth of the band. Chris also loves having Hiro playing behind him, ‘he’s a handy back up, and a passionate player.’ They both have a band disaster story that doesn’t involve the bending of silverware. Liz once forgot her mute in the warm up room as band moved onto contest stage. She raced back, grabbed mute, ran back, sat and played the first note. Wisdom learnt: be prepared and double check, everything, always. Chris was to be featured soloist with the Artillery band in a regional contest. First note sounded ok, then he dried up. Totally no sound, a few squeaks and honks but really nothing much came out. Wisdom to share here is the importance of warming up correctly, always.

Liz & Chris Lawrence with their two daughters Payton & Ellie

They both stress the importance of learning the basics, both of music theory and playing technique. Scales, patterns, rhythmic work and long tones are all so important to reach the standard of their playing. “The more I practice the luckier I get” is a favorite motto from Chris. The more often you have your lips on your mouthpiece; you will become a better player. Don’t practice what you do know, prac-tice what you don’t, and do it slowly. Then get the tempo up. Be able to look ahead, recognize phrases and patterns, runs and scales. They both stress that brass is all about breathing, tone, phrases, and big full breaths. Warm up. Always. Use your scales and patterns as warm ups. Chris talks about a Bob Childs workshop and a plea to give the conductor something other than the notes, don’t just play the notes, play like it’s a solo, every note every nuance is im-portant to the band. EBOP has a great band sound. It is greater then the sum of its individual players. They are a dedicated band family, and the band appreciates the work they put in. The future of banding and the Lawrence family looks to be in good hands, as youngest daughter Ellie dreams of the purple trombone she saw in the junior group one day. With old-er daughter Payton singing, dancing and acting, Whakatane will be hearing from this family for many years to come. EBOPDSBrassBand A band with a name this long must be impressive. Indeed the Eastern Bay Of Plenty Development Squad Brass Band is impressive. A group of younger players meeting every Tuesday afterschool has blossomed into a Development Squad Band that will hopefully provide our senior band with players for the years ahead. But we are not only a breeding ground for young bands men, we are a band in our own right. The 12 members range from 12 to 69 in years, from cornet to tuba in instruments, and from very basic to quite proficient in playing abil-ity. Most of the players have come through the beginning brass classes with Sandy Herewini, some of them have come back to brass from years of not playing, rekindling a love of brass bands. Others are mothers and grandmothers who were quite simply cajoled and bullied into playing as they sat listening to the younger band rehearse. Recently the EBOPDS band performed as part of the pre contest open rehearsal in the Trident drama room. The nerves were real as this was our first performance for the year. The band had polished up three tunes from our repertoire and delighted the audience with The Spook, A Song for Friends and a jazz tune, Wishes. Star of the band that day was no doubt Aria on solo cornet. She is the most experienced player of the cornet section and played the lead parts with confidence and great musicality. Balancing well, Aria produced her sound strongly against a fierce and determined second and third cornet section. The three horns, trombone and Eb bass also worked hard and combined to produce an excellent sound. Our drummer was amazing, still wearing the mud and sweat from his late running soccer game, he raced in the door and onto the drum set practically as the down beat was happening. He is new to the band having only been to two rehearsals. The percussion lines were tight. Dylan will be a marvelous asset to the bands of the future. We look forward to more performances and to supporting the EBOP Brass as often as we can. The development squad is ready to rock!

Ellie playing the cornet

BREAKING NEWS!! We have just found out that we have been promoted

to the A Grade effective immediately.

The only other North Island bands in this grade are from Auckland and Wellington and there are only 10 A Grade

bands in New Zealand.

ALAN SPENCE QSM—DIRECTOR OF MUSIC REPORT Since the National contest in July when the band came agonisingly close to defending its B grade national title we have been very busy in preparation for the Waikato Bay of Plenty Band Championships which was held in Te Awamutu on September 3rd and 4th. 10 bands have entered this competition and EBOP brass will come up against their arch rivals Hamilton Brass who beat them by half a point at the national championships. In early August, six younger members of the band were selected for the National Secondary Schools’ Band which will assemble at Burn-ham Military Camp for a week of rehearsals and concerts. Courtney Wilson (cornet) has been selected for this band for the first time together with Liam Bewley (bass trombone ) William Herewini (cornet) and Clarke Spence (cornet). Lachlan Spence has been selected as the Principal Horn and Leo Read as Principal Trombone and will lead their respective sections. Twenty nine secondary schools from all around New Zealand are represented in this band. Students from Whakatane make up the largest representation from any one area. Seven younger members of the band have also recently completed auditions for the National Youth band 2017. This band will be an-nounced within the next 2 weeks. Any successful applicants will be reported on in our next newsletter. Several younger band members recently completed instrumental performance examinations performance with some pleasing results. Simon Winship (piano grade 3) Courtney Wilson (cornet grade 5) and Leo Read (piano, diploma with high distinction) Recently the production Hairspray was presented by Trident High School. 14 members of EBOP Brass were part of this production which received rave reviews. Many of the musicians performing were playing instruments other than their first instrument and in some cases playing 3 different instruments during the production. Shortly, three past members of the band will compete internationally in the British Open Brass Band championships held in Symphony Hall in Birmingham, England. Luke Spence, Callum Mallett and Jack Bewley are all music students at the New Zealand School of music (Victoria University ) and are members of Wellington Brass which has won the New Zealand A grade Championships four years in a row. They also won the Australian Championships in 2015. As they are undoubtedly the best band in Australasia at the moment, they have been invited to compete in this elite competition and have spent the last 9 months raising the $200,000.00 required to travel to the UK to compete. We wish them well in their endeavours to compete against 18 of the best brass bands in the world.

After the regional contest the band will begin preparations for an end of year concert, more details will follow.

THANK YOU TO OUR MANY BUSINESS SUPPORTERS, FRIENDS AND HUGE SUPPORT FROM BOB BYRNE AND IAN LYSAGHT

FRIENDS OF THE BAND A little goes a long way. The EBOP Brass Band invite you to become a ‘Friend of the Band’. If as few as 200 people set up an auto-matic payment for as little as $1 a week we would have the much needed sponsorship we require. Your name would appear on the newsletters, programmes and website currently under construction. Your on-going support would hugely contribute to the growth, development and success of the Band. Automatic payments can be made to the following account number: 12-3253-0043774-50