New Zealand Brass Band Championships 2018

[GC]

BrassBanned.com will be livestreaming the NZ BB 2018 Championships from Blenheim, Marlborough, New Zealand on July 12-15, live and in HD. The time in Blenheim is 16 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Saving Time, so the first event being broadcast, a 7:30 pm concert (I think) on the evening of the Thursday the 12th, will be shown at 3:30am EDT the morning of the 12th on the east coast of the US. Of course, the first day of the full band contest is therefore Friday the 13th.

If I haven't done the math correctly, please weigh in.

The contest web page is a bit short on specifics: http://www.contest2018.nz/

Their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/contest2018/

Bands are in classes A, B, C, D, and youth. Bands must march a parade Friday at 1pm; youth division seems to be exempt, but there is only one youth band according to the postings. On Friday, bands in A-C do a sacred selection and a contest piece, and on Saturday, all bands play their choice selection. BrassBanned will run two streams, one from each of the contest locations.

The first group plays at 8:30am Friday, which my calculations say is 4:30pm Thursday EDT in the US.

Handsome Tim (Tim Kelly), the operator of BrassBanned.com, usually puts up a schedule of groups a day or so before the contests begin. Please note that there are 10 A bands not counting no-shows and that they begin at 4:30 pm each day, so this level could run on 6 hours or more. That makes them very late at night in the US (or early in the morning, if you prefer).

Tim is an Australian brass bandsman who proudly plays a Conn 25J and displays it prominently on BrassBanned.com.

[Ken Herrick]

Thanks for posting.

There should be some very good playing in that contest.

[GC]

I watched this and the Australian nationals last year (which included concert bands, too). There were some amazing groups there. Surprisingly, though, there were a few groups that were startlingly awful. It's a place for all kinds and levels, I guess.

[GC]

Bump city

[GC]

Some of the euphonium solo competition was shown earlier this afternoon. There is something called "Champion of Champions tonight at 7:30 pm NZ time (GMT +12, which I figure is 16 hr ahead of EDT in the US, so I think it will be at 3:30 am EDT this morning (Thursday).

The basic schedule is here: https://brassbanned.com/2018/03/28/full ... -schedule/ Specific band slots and pieces will be posted after they're made available Thursday evening.

Hall 1 feed: https://brassbanned.com/watch-now-hall-1/ Grades A and B competition will be here.

Hall 2 feed: https://brassbanned.com/watch-now-hall-2/ Grades C, D, and youth will play here. The schedule shows that Hall 2 is used about half of the time.

The first event of the full band contest should be at 8:30 am Friday in Hall 1, which I believe is 4:30 pm Thursday EDT in the US.

[tastuba]

Champion of champions is all the individual instrumental solo winners play off. Expect some amazing solo performances.

[GC]

Thanks. It started, as expected, at 3:30 am here. 13 total players. Instrument order seems random.

1 Bb Bass Jamie Mackay (Waitakere Auckland Brass)
2 Percussion Mone Isoda (Eastern Bay of Plenty Brass)
3 Championship Cornet David Maas (Wellington Brass)
4 Eb Bass Phillip Johnston (Woolston Brass)
5 Bass Trombone Joe Thomas (Waitakere Auckland Brass)
6 Masters Mike Ford (Nelson City Brass)
7 Amateur Cornet Andrew Large (Waitakere Auckland Brass)
8 Soprano Jaime Rolfe (Brisbane Excelsior Band, Aus)
9 Euphonium Bryce Fairweather (Addington Brass)
10 Flugel Horn Tyme Marsters (Woolston Brass)
11 Baritone Steven Booth (Waitakere Auckland Brass)
12 Tenor Trombone Andrew Yorkstone (Wellington Brass)
13 Tenor Horn Murray Borthwick (North Shore Brass)

[GC]

Class B starts in hall 1 today at 4:30 pm EDT, east coast of the US. Pieces and order of bands is down the page on the Hall 1 web page. The parade is at 1 pm NZ time, which should be 9 pm EDT. Later afternoon schedules are on the Hall 1 & 2 pages. Subtract 16 hours from NZ time for EDT in the US.

All concert groups today will play a sacred selection and their contest piece. Optional pieces and the full class D programs will be tomorrow.