Press Release: Wellington Brass Band wins 2021 National Brass Band Championship Title Returning home Champions again! The oldest National Championships in the banding world took place in Christchurch as the ‘Festival of Brass’ with the highest number of participants in 30 years. WBB returned to the contest stage bringing the seventh New Zealand A Grade victory in the past nine years. Musical Director David Bremner led the youthful ensemble (featuring 12 National debutants) displayed a remarkable degree of musical maturity to once again claim the famous Gold Cup trophy, as well as the KGL Smit ..read more

Hi everyone! I’m Scott and I’m from the bass section of the band. What a weekend the band’s just had! We spent it getting all our pieces together in preparation for nationals. It can be difficult to tell how the band is sounding from the back-row of the band but I must say that the percussion section is sounding epic. In order to get a reliable idea of how the band is sounding overall, I find myself eagerly awaiting the classic numerical rating from Dave. However, to my disappointment I don’t think we were given a concrete rating for the weekend. Instead, I believe Dave noted that the band was ..read more

Kia ora all! Mollie Cornfield here - a fresh face to Wellington Brass in the humble but coveted role of 3rd cornet. Also joining me as new additions to the band are fellow back-row battler Sarah Wright and Ethan Mancer on Baritone. After moving to the windy capital for University it’ll be my first National contest with Wellington Brass, and these last few months in the band have been nothing short of awe-inspiring. Look of a bitter disappointment for Sarah and Tommy abstaining from sectional (probably working on their triple tongue) It’s been a whirlwind start to the year with the band kickin ..read more

Hello al! My name’s Brad, and I’m the band’s flugel player. We are now well on our way in preparing for this year’s National contest, which is now only a few weeks away. This will be my seventh contest with the band, and the pieces are starting to shape up nicely. This year’s contest is in the big smoke of Hamilton! We still have a few more full weekend rehearsals to go, a bit more time to nail our terry tuckers and boost our overall rating from David from a 4.1/10 to at least a 5/10 before July. Hopefully we can also find time to squeeze a band curry or two in there too! As usual, to be fair ..read more

Vincent confesses his sins…[Steinbenders at Meeanee Meets Munich - The Old Church Napier'] Good morning, back row Isabattler here I’ve been commissioned by the band’s media man, Callum Mallett, who came to me literally begging for my work. His tenor horn is out of action this contest, so this blog is brought to you by FOMO (see also: contest withdrawal anxiety). About two months ago, Dave proposed a brilliant idea. Perhaps more of a pact than a polite suggestion, the proposal was to learn all of the notes in our pieces before June. This way, we would get to June and all we would need to do i ..read more

We couldn't continue to perform at our consistent best without the ongoing support of many within the Wellington Brass community. From those 'woodshedding' the band room to those around the committee board room, we have a number of people working behind the scenes to ensure the band are able to perform at their very best.  Meet our new Production and Archives Assistant The most recent addition to our team is Sarah Wright who joins us in the role of Production and Archives Assistant. This role has been initiated to provide an opportunity for an emerging artist to develop curatori ..read more

We couldn’t continue to perform at our consistent best without the ongoing support of many within Wellington Brass. From those ‘woodshedding’ in the band room to those around the committee board room, we have a number of people we should introduce. WELCOME (BACK) MATTHEW STEIN! Wellington Brass Band is excited on the return of Matthew Stein, welcoming him to the position of Associate Musical Director - Matt will be leading the band during some concerts in the year and taking rehearsals when David Bremner is touring - we feel very lucky to have someone of Matt's talent accepting this position ..read more

Well, it's the final blog of our series, and as always the final say goes to the conductor (sshh Kezza). I am Dave Bremner, the bands music director, and if you believe past blogs, I am the tyrannical dictator who picks constantly on Mark Davey and Tom Baker (some of this may be true). The tour has come to an end, but it only feels like yesterday we were getting off the plane in Manchester ready for the challenge of our lives. 10 days later we disperse as a group, feeling very proud and satisfied of the week in the UK and our performance on Saturday. There is always an unwritten rule about tri ..read more

Greetings intrepid followers. Garth Coffey, 1st horn chugger and one of the elder statesmen of the band, here to enliven you on our last full day in Birmingham. No doubt many of you have checked out the final results of the championship yesterday. Despite our obvious disappointment at our finals placing, the sun still rose this morning and after a night of celebration we firmly stand with our heads held high proud of what we have achieved on this tour. The effervescent (read fizziness) levels have not diminished even though the heads of some of the band members and supporters this morning were ..read more

Good evening/morning dedicated followers of Wellington Brass. Callum Mallett, Chief Blog Editor and Principal 2nd Horn giving you the usual daily offering of tour gossip, assortment of banter and woeful tales from Mark Davey. Today of course is game day and its fair to say emotions haven’t dwindled since Jack Bewley's famous words at the beginning, we are “absolutely fizzing mate, revelling in it.” An early start, the 7am alarm sounding the day to Mark’s delight after being incarcerated the evening before in a bleak courthouse session from Brother Byron (Buzz). Like any contest performance the ..read more