The Dannevirke Brass Band at their bandstand concert in St John's Anglican Church on Sunday afternoon. Photo / Christine McKay
The Dannevirke Brass Band at their bandstand concert in St John's Anglican Church on Sunday afternoon. Photo / Christine McKay
Spirits were lifted in Dannevirke's St John's Anglican Church on Sunday when two brass bands combined for a unique bandstand concert.
Church brass took on a new meaning when the Dannevirke and Feilding Brass Bands celebrated the versatility of brass, bringing joy on a gloomy winter's day.
"The brass bandfraternity being what it is means a couple of the Feilding band members will play with our Dannevirke band and vice versa, to cover for absentees, Nick Hill president of the Dannevirke Brass Band said.
Dannevirke band members Elaine Swanney and Paddy and Ngaroma Driver were overseas so Steve Lawton of Feilding was drummer for both bands and former band member Lance Strathern from Wellington also helped out.
The trombone section of the Feilding Brass Band which performed in Dannevirke's St John's Anglican Church on Sunday.
Taylor Howe, 13, a member of both the Dannevirke and Masterton Brass Bands, has been taught by former Dannevirke man Robert Priday and is the third member of her family to take up brass band music.
Taylor told the Dannevirke News she loved the competitive side of music and followed her dad Shane and her granddad into the band. Playing with the Masterton band allows her to take part in competitions, but she still has a strong tie to the Dannevirke Brass Band.
The Dannevirke band opened the concert with a special version of Booker T and the MGs Time is Tight, which was purchased thanks to a donation to the band from the Dannevirke Community Board.
Gwen Fairbrother, the Dannevirke band's patron, was in church for the concert and Mr Hill said she'd financed some of the new learners material for the band as well as allowing Mr Williams to acquire new material for pipes and brass.
With feet tapping and heads nodding to the music, Feilding's 32-year-old conductor Craig Holdaway took the audience on a truly remarkable musical journey, from a stirring brass band classic, The Golden Lady, to a selection from Mary Poppins, to the slow movement from Beethoven's Symphony No Seven, he'd transcribed himself. Feilding closed with the traditional hymn How Great Thou Art.
The Dannevirke Brass Band in concert at St John's Anglican Church on Sunday.
The bands combined for the Invercargill March, Mack the Knife, the Imperial March from Star Wars and Whitney Houston's One Moment in Time, a signature tune from the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
The outstanding acoustics of St John's Church made for an exceptional concert, Bill Ingram said.
"I really enjoyed it," he said.
And Kath Redward agreed.
"This has been so much better than staying at home," she said.
