Brass band in black takes on world's best

National Band of New Zealand 's Waikato players, Mason Elliot (solo cornet) and Sergio Marshall (tenor horn). Photo / Peter Tiffany

They practice regularly, train hard to stay fit and put lots of time and effort into their special moves.

They dress in black, wear the silver fern with pride and are off soon to take on the best in the world.

But stop thinking rugby, or even sport. These guys are musicians, Hamilton-based members of the National Band of New Zealand which is off next month to compete at the World Music Contest in the Netherlands.

Meet Sergio Marshall (tenor horn) and Mason Elliot (solo cornet) long-time players with Hamilton City Brass and preparing for their fifth and sixth world competition respectively.

The National Band is formed periodically by auditioning top players throughout New Zealand.

Known unofficially as the Blow Backs, the band was first formed in 1953 and has a considerable record of international success since then.

The highly professional standard attained by the National Band is impressive considering that the members are mostly amateur musicians, selected from 50 community bands and representing all walks of life.

For a day job Sergio does agricultural field trials with chemical company Bayer while Mason is IT manager for the Waikato with Fairview Motors.

For both their passion is music and fortunately both have very supportive partners who are also into brass band music.

Sergio met his wife Lisa Marshall, a flugel horn player, 20 years ago when both were in Hamilton City Brass and have been in the band since then and together since 1997.

Mason met wife Sarah, also a cornet player when he joined Hamilton City Brass in 1989 aged 15. They married in 2005.

The World Music Festival is held every four years in the Dutch town of Kerkrade, a town of just 50,000 people. The month-long festival featuring all types of music attracts 500,000 people.

For their competition opener the National Band will play a piece by New Zealand composer Gareth Farr.

They play a test piece of their own choice and are preparing a piece by Peter Graham called The 39th Parrell written as a tribute to Kevin Jarrett MBE a cornet player and band leader originally from Whanganui and generally regarded as the Kiwi godfather of all things brass band. The 39th Parrell, passes through Wanganui.

They also play a test piece chosen by the World Music Concourse, which runs the competition. This year's test piece is called Tracing Time, or as Mason has retitled it Play a Note, Now Think About the Note You Would Least LIke to Play Next.

And how are they sounding?

Come and hear for yourself next week.

The 33-piece ensemble will be performing two concerts under the musical baton of Nigel Weeks one in Hamilton on 28 June at Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts and another at Auckland Girls Grammar School on 30 June.

Joining the band for these concerts are the Aotearoa Maori Group and guest soloist David Bremner, the principal trombone for the NZ Symphony Orchestra.

In concert

The 2017 National Band of New Zealand

* Wednesday 28 June, 7.30pm Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts, Gate 2B, Knighton Rd, University of Waikato, Hamilton.
* Tickets from Venue Box Office www.waikato.ac.nz/academy/whats-on 0800 383 5200
* Adults: $24, Seniors + Students with ID: $18, Children under 10: $10, Family (2AD+3CH): $65