Festival offers unique hands-on learning opportunity

From the tuba to the bongo drums, the piccolo to the saxophone, the variety of sound and funkier style of music are making concert bands an increasingly popular choice for musicians, young and old. Concert bands comprise woodwind, brass and percussion instruments. Works available for bands range from movie themes and pop tunes, to marches and lyrical pieces, to full scale symphonic works.

Over three days in August, Dio hosted the 2019 New Zealand Concert Band Association National Festival, held in Auckland for the first time in five years. With over 1,300 participants playing in 32 bands, as well as multiple soloist and ensemble entrants, band workshops, conductor workshops and instrument workshops, the New Zealand Concert Band Association (NZCBA) celebrated its biggest festival ever, with numbers up thirty per cent on last year.

Performers were adjudicated by a highly renowned group of national and international musical experts and participants also had the opportunity to attend instrumental workshops by members of the APO and band workshops by overseas clinician, Dr Kevin Cameron.

One of the youngest musicians to perform was 10-year-old Diocesan student and flautist Ella Zhang. Hot off the heels of her performance in the Lincoln Centre in the USA as part of the Talented Young Musician Olympia competition, Ella played in both the Diocesan Junior High School concert band as well as performing a solo piece.

Grace David (Year 12) and Sabreen Islam (Year 12) are two of our performing arts students who played an integral role in this year's NZCBA Festival. Grace assisted as NZCBA Festival Assistant Host Manager and Sabreen as Audio Recordings Technician – recording all the Band Performance Adjudicators’ remarks, and digitally mixing them into a format accessible to all bands after the festival.

"It's great to be getting these experiences at such a young age," says Grace, "especially for those of us looking to pursue a career in the music industry or event management. The industry can often come across as quite intimidating, but opportunities like this can make that sort of career path seem more realistic and less like a faraway dream."

Facilitated by Rachael Brand (Dio Performing Arts Development Manager and NZCBA Festival Host Manager), the roles provided excellent hands-on event management and hosting experience for these students and the Dio Arts Council as they involved a high level of responsibility and organisation.

"It has been an absolute pleasure and a privilege to work with Grace, Sabreen and our Arts Council on NZCBA Festival 2019 Auckland. We have some incredibly talented young women at Dio, and it is very special to be able to offer them such invaluable industry experience, and to inspire and encourage them to further pursue their dreams of working in the arts," said Rachael.

Sabreen Islam and Grace David

Ella Zhang