StAC: Our Earthquake Story | The Band Room Stories

VALUES AND CULTURE

The Winning Beat It took just four minutes to make a six-year long dream come true for St Andrew’s Pipe Band Director Richard Hawke. With absolute precision he led the College’s Pipe Band to victory in the Juvenile grade of the World Piping Championships in Scotland and into the New Zealand history books as the first Kiwi team to win a world championship piping title.

THE PIPE BAND PLAYS IN FRONT OF THE ST ANDREW'S CATHEDRAL RUINS IN SCOTLAND.

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Values and Culture

The College team beat nerves, jet lag, and the temperature change that came with the move from winter to summer that affects musical instruments to deliver the performance of their lives in the main arena of Glasgow Green in Glasgow, Scotland. The event draws more than 40,000 spectators, 8,000 pipers and drummers from all over the world.

“There were a lot of factors against us winning including knowing people around the world were watching live on the Internet,” says Richard. “So we spent a lot of time dealing with the psychology of performance to ensure everyone stayed calm.” It was in 2007 after Richard asked a previous winner of the Juvenile grade what it took to win a championship that he realised St Andrew’s would have to get serious about its Band programme.

“We decided to put a long term plan in place and start creating depth in the band. We now have the right tutoring programmes and the right tutors in place."

The drumming tutors are James Laughlin, Jamie McEwan and Ian Steel, while Graeme Bryce, who is also the Pipe Band Manager, and Richard Hawke look after the piping. Richard says the Band recognised its potential and the players knew they had what it took to do well in the competition.

The rest came down to hard work. “We had winning in our sights, but it still required a lot of practice.” In the five months leading up to the August competition, every week the Band practised for four hours, each player also had individual tutoring and would practise for an additional hour as well. “Although it is the music that brings us together, our success is ultimately about the people and the development of technical and musical skills of individuals.

"It’s about the interaction between students and tutors and younger and older students, pipers and drummers,” says Richard. The depth of experience was evident as about 20 of the 32-strong group played in the 2010 competition where St Andrew’s came fifth, although none of them had played in the arena before. Because the event was live streamed around the world there was also more media equipment on site.

“As we walked down the path leading to the grandstand you could see people packed in the grandstands, the big screens, banks of cameras and all the overhead microphones,” says Pipe Major Ben Murray (Year 13). “It was very daunting. I didn’t take my eyes off Richard the whole time otherwise I knew I would be distracted. It’s as much a psychological game as a musical one.”

Yay – we did it! The St Andrew’s Pipe Band reacts ecstatically as they are declared the Pipe Band World Champions Juvenile Grade in Scotland.

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St Andrew’s was one of nine schools competing in the Juvenile grade and the only team not from Scotland.

It was an anxious time while the team waited for the final results says Ben. “We were aiming to beat all the Scottish schools and we knew we had done well but it wasn’t until the results were announced some time later that we knew for sure.” Three of the four judges had put the New Zealand team on top and the fourth marked them second.

Not only did the band win their grade this year, it came away with the Joe Noble Trophy for Best Drum Corps, and at a special invitational event held during the week, Harrison Guy (Year 13) won Best Snare Drummer, scoring himself a snare drum to bring home, and Andrew Fitzgerald (OC 2012) won Best Bass Drummer winning a bass drum.

Iain Blakeley, President of the Royal New Zealand Pipe Bands Association congratulates Harriet Moran (Year 11) during assembly.

An immense thank you is owed to the parent support that made the whole trip possible. Between them the parents raised nearly half of the $200,000 needed to get the team of 40 students and staff to Scotland and Richard says without their help the Band would never have achieved what it did.

Pipe Sergeant Liam Allan (Year 13) with the Stirling McMurchy 2003 Memorial Trophy for Best Band, Pipe Major Benjamin Murray (Year 13) with the 1932 MacDiarmid Challenge Shield for World Champion Juvenile Band and Drum Sergeant Harrison Guy (Year 13) with the 1984 Joe Noble Trophy for Best Drum Corps.

The St Andrew’s College Pipe Band - World Champions (Juvenile Grade).

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Practice Makes Perfect

Our Tutors

“It was weird how quickly it all happened,” says Pipe Major Ben Murray, remembering the moment of the winning announcement. “After all these years of practice.” Ben started playing the pipes as a seven or eight year old after he went to a piping competition and wanted to learn to play. Ten years on he says the pipes are not an easy instrument to learn. “You can’t just pick them up and play, it takes a few years to get your head around what’s involved” he says. But it’s a decision he’s never regretted. “Pipes are a part of my life now. I can’t imagine not playing.”

Richard Hawke is the Pipe Band Director. He received a New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Pipe Bands after a career in piping spanning over 30 years.

Considered one of the world’s greatest competitive solo pipers, Richard has won the Northern Meeting A Grade MSR, Oban Gold Medal, Dunvegan Medal, Braemar Gathering Gold Medal (twice) as well as several other prestigious titles. He has won over 20 New Zealand solo piping championships, and as a tutor has had students win the Gold Medal, Silver Medal, Silver Chanter, and several other New Zealand Championships.

Ben is also a self-taught saxophonist who plays in the StAC Jazz Band and he played the oboe with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra following three years as the principal oboist for the Christchurch Youth Orchestra. Ben heads to Victoria University in Wellington next year to study for a Bachelor of Music and couldn’t be happier with this final send off. “Scotland was a great trip, and it’s going to be remembered for a long time.”

James Laughlin is a drumming tutor at StAC. He started drumming at the age of ten while at school in Northern Ireland and within four years had won the World Solo Juvenile drumming championships twice, in 2000 and 2001. Before moving to New Zealand, he lived in Canada where he played with the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band. During this time he won three World Drum Corps titles and two World Pipe Band championships. James, who has taught at some of the most distinguished piping and drumming schools in the world, began teaching pipe band drumming in his mid-teens. His recent solo successes include winning the British Columbia Pro Drumming Aggregate, and placing seventh at the semifinals of the Adult World Solo Drumming Championships.

Watch the full performance of our Pipe Band in Glasgow at stac.school.nz

Graeme Bryce hails from Fife in Scotland and is the StAC Pipe Band manager. He runs a successful business in Christchurch setting up solo pipers and pipe bands.

He has been a member and soundman of Grade One pipe bands including the Strathclyde Police in Scotland, Peel Regional Police in Canada and the current New Zealand Champion Canterbury Caledonian Society Pipe Band. As well as managing the St Andrew’s Pipe Band, Graeme helped guide the Canterbury Caledonian Pipe Band into the final at the World Pipe Band championships for the first time in the band’s history. In 2012, Graeme won the Silver Chanter shortly after arriving in Christchurch from Scotland and playing in his first solo piping competition in New Zealand.

The Drum Corps in action.

Pipe Band Director Richard Hawke, Drum Tutor James Laughlin and Pipe Band Manager Graeme Bryce celebrate a winning performance in Scotland.

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