Prodigal son Kyle Lawson brings it home for Brass Whanganui

Cornet player Kyle Lawson will perform with Brass Whanganui at Christ Church this Sunday. Photo / Bevan Conley

Kyle Lawson, originally from Whanganui, is one of the world's top cornet soloists and he is back home for one very special concert this Sunday.

Lawson's playing has taken him to many great bands including Wellington Brass, The New Zealand Army Band, Woolston Brass, and Brighouse and Rastrick in the UK.

He picked up the cornet when he joined Brass Whanganui as an 11-year-old and it seems he has never looked back.

"I was never interested in playing another instrument," he says. "I didn't have any family members who played with Brass Whanganui but I discovered that my great-grandfather played with the garrison band."

Lawson will play four feature pieces at the Sunday concert - cornet solos Life's Pageant and Don't Doubt Him Now as well as Zelda and Macushla with piano accompaniment.

Band leader Bruce Jellyman said it will be wonderful to have Lawson's "incredible cornet artistry" as part of the concert.

"He will be working with other band members - giving some individual lessons, and leading section practices."

Lawson also found to head back to Whanganui High School where he went to school and work with some students there.

The Sunday concert will begin with Peter Graham's Academic Festival Fanfare which features antiphonal sounds from cornets on the left and trombones to the left.

Bruce Jellyman said the larger work for this programme is a set of period pieces, featuring music from the Elizabethan Court.

"These pieces sound best in a church building with the acoustic of Christ Church.

"The Seal Lullaby by Eric Whitacre originally written for choir and beautifully crafted for brass band by Alan Fernie.

"It was originally a movie score to the Kipling story The White Seal. It is beautiful, tender and simple."

There will be a cornet quartet Fidgety Feet and the melancholy Mid All the Traffic.

"The programme will conclude with some true brass band fun by Paul Lovatt-Cooper," said Jellyman. "You've been warned - big swing, big brass band sounds."

Brass Whanganui with Kyle Lawson at Christ Church, 243 Wicksteed Street, Sunday, Feb 25, at 2pm. Cash sale tickets at the door $25 Adults, $20 seniors and children 16 and under are free.