News

Kings and Queens Performing Arts Centre
1 September 2012
Conductor: Errol Moore
Guests: Deborah Wai Kapohe (soprano) and RASA School of Dance

Visual interest enhances fine show

St Kilda Brass, conducted by Errol Moore, presented another concert in their 2012 series on Saturday night in the King’s and Queen’s Performing Arts Centre.

A reasonable-sized audience enjoyed the programme, titled “Aotearoa – an industrial journey”, which was an eclectic mix of band music and arrangements within the overall theme.

“Overall” actually described the band uniform for the second half, when the musicians endorsed the programme title by dressing in work-men’s attire.

One of the best items of the evening was the opening number, Dam Busters, performed against a projected backdrop of Spitfires, a “busted dam” and historical archive news clips of Winston Churchill.

Another highlight was Pie Jesu (Webber) with soloists soprano Debbie Wai Kapohe and Rosie Evans (flugel horn).

Wai Kapohe also performed with other band items – A te Tarahiki, Hine e Hine and a spicy delivery of a Miles arrangement of All That Jazz, which showcased the versatility of this New Zealand singer.

Another quest was a large group of energetic dancers from Rasa School of Dance (Lisa Wilkinson), which visually enhanced several band numbers. The Enchanted Dance Hall (Ken Young) was particularly suited to their interpretive dance movement.

It was good to look back over historic footage of TSS Earnslaw and Lake Wakatipu, accompanied by the familiar strains of Ron Goodwin’s Earnslaw Theme (1983).

Haast Highway included poetry (narrated by Gladys Hope) and was performed against a backdrop of Haast archive footage.

The recital was presented in an enjoyable and relaxed atmosphere, with good musicianship, and appropriate visual additions and props.

Elizabeth Bouman

Review taken from the Otago Daily Times (September 03, 2012)

Kings and Queens Performing Arts Centre
12 May 2012
Conductor: Howard Taylor
Guests: John Lewis (cornet) and Riki McDonnell (euphonium)

A disappointingly small, but very appreciative, audience enjoyed some top brass on Saturday evening in the Kings and Queens Performing Arts Centre.

Brisbane-based conductor Howard Taylor conducted an excellent programme by St Kilda Brass and compered the evening like a seasoned TV show host (I won’t mention the corny jokes).

The programme was titled “Simply the Best” and Taylor was quick to point out that the two guest soloists were indeed simply the best

And John Lewis (on cornet) and Riki McDonnell (on euphonium) certainly were, both performing solo work in the style that has won them a great many international titles and championships.

The band was in top form too, opening with a rousing Fanfare and Flourishes and working through 20 numbers of classical, rock, jazz and traditional to end with an absolutely sublime rendition of Pokarekare.

There were many highlights. The passionate tight blend and balance of The Irish Blessing, the speed and clarity of Lewis’ Napoli variations, the incredible virtuosity of McDonnell’s Carnival Cocktail (Sykes) and the beautiful duo arrangement of Hallelujah (Cohen) played by Lewis with Nathan Tane on electric guitar held the audience spellbound. Big numbers such as Swing When You’re Winning, Disney Fantasy, Georgia on My Mind and Innuendo were full of energy and character, and Bach’s Toccata in D Minor featuring Robert Craigie on xylophone, brought this well-known work out of the Baroque age.

A programme such as this makes one realise just how far brass bands, with their sophisticated repertoire, have evolved from the limitations of common-time street-march repertoire.

Elizabeth Bouman

Review taken from the Otago Daily Times (May 14, 2012)

Kings and Queens Performing Arts Centre
29 October 2011
Conductor: Peter Adams
Guests: Otago Boys’ and Girls’ Choirs

St Kilda Brass presented its final 2011 concert on Saturday evening at the Kings and Queens Performing Arts Centre.

Peter Adams conducted and Otago Girls’ High School and Otago Boys’ High School choirs (musical director Karen Knudson) were guest performers.

Liberty Fanfare made a very impressive opening number. With its great range of dynamic contrast and forward drive creating a feeling of “something exciting is about to happen”.

John Williams (arr. Philip Sparke) has composed the ideal brass recital overture. This band produces tight, mellow, unified tone and there were many moments of beautiful resonance throughout its programme, plus colourful music to challenge four busy percussionists. In addition, a considerable number of players have achieved championship status in national competitions, and works were chosen to highlight this.

Rosie Evans (flugal horn) soloed in a brass arrangement of Rodrigo’s Concerto du Arunjuez, originally for classical guitar, Erynne Scherf (tenor horn open grade champ) showed her winning style in Goff Richards’ arrangement of Over the Rainbow, and principal cornet Katie Blair created seamless legato phrasing in Pastorale, a more lyrical work by Richards.

John McAdam (baritone horn) also featured impressively as a soloist. Richards’ Armenian Fire Dance was an absolute highlight, proving champs in the ranks make the difference. Vibrancy with thrilling clarity never failed as tempo accelerated to a brilliant climactic ending.

Choir performances were disappointingly under par, no doubt due to the absence of many members, but 10 OBHS singers showed it is “cool for guys to sing”, performing their bracket with the zealous attitude and teamwork of any 1st XV, displaying vocal skills which earned a placing in Big Sing’s national finals.

Elizabeth Bouman

Review taken from the Otago Daily Times (October 31, 2011)

Mayfair Theatre
28 May 2011
Conductor: Dave Burchell
Guests: Emma Fraser, Jason Balla

Night of opera hits leaves audience keen for more

A near capacity house did not really want their Night at the Opera at the Mayfair to come to an end.

The programme of well-known hits from operas was presented by the St Kilda Brass Band and guest soloists soprano Emma Fraser and tenor Jason Balla and directed by David Burchell. All performed very well.

The band is in top shape, executing both exquisitely soft passages and full-bodied blasts with apparent ease. Burchell directed them, it seemed as if they were an orchestra with strings attached, with surprisingly good effect.

Emma Fraser is also in fine form. Her voice matures well and she has always had a great dramatic presence. Balla is also an accomplished singer, though not quite as at home as Fraser. Their duets were especially convincing.

All items were performed exceptionally well, and the arrangers of orchestral works for brass all did a creditable job. Though the balance between brass and voice was consistently good, audibility of the singers over the brass at full volume was greatly assisted by microphones.

Notable items included “Bei Maennern” (The Magic Flute), in which the soloists’ voices blended beautifully; “O mio babbino caro” (Gianni Schicchi); “Seguidilla” (Carmen); “Overture: Il Barbiere di Siviglia” (The Barber of Seville); “Granada” (Fantasia Espanola); “Pilgrim Chorus” (Tannhauser); “Summertime” (Porgy and Bess); and “Song to the Moon” (Rusalka).

Sadly, “Younger than Springtime” (South Pacific) just slipped below the standard of the others. It deserves to have more time spent on the play with words – there being so few of them.

However, two items deserve to be singled out for all the right reasons. “Overture: Candide” is a wonderful romp through several time changes and other disjointed rhythms. It was performed with excellence.

The final item, “All I Ask of You” (The Phantom of the Opera), is testament to just how good popular music can be rousing, uplifting, heart warming and excellently performed.

St Kilda Brass at the Mayfair, Saturday, May 28
Marian Poole

Review taken from the Otago Daily Times (May 30, 2011)

Glenroy Auditorium
21 November 2009
Conductor: Steve Miles
Guests: Douglas Kamo, Rob Enari and Kris Bate

The Rat Pack reincarnated returned to Dunedin on Saturday night as slick, smooth and funny as the original Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr and Frank Sinatra. A full house in the Glenroy auditorium loved every minute of the smooth crooning, irreverent humour and stylish moves of the local cool cats: Douglas Kamo, Rob Enari and Kris Bate.

This was an excellent concert put on by St Kilda Brass: all the great songs were there, delivered with the panache, if not quite the vocal qualities, of the original “rats”. Kamo, Enari and Bate were all over the auditorium working the audience with all the skills, humour and charm of the originals. No one was safe: audience member Avis (“Isn’t that a rental company?” quipped Kamo) found herself on stage lying across rat pack knees being serenaded in a love song. Audience participation was mandatory and great fun – a Mexican wave for That’s Amore, phonetic punctuation for Doe a Deer and finger clicking and clapping along all adding to the success of songs like My Way, New York, New York and Mack the Knife.

All credit to musical director Steve Miles whose roles included conductor, compere, singer and arranger. His idiomatic arrangements transformed St Kilda Brass into a swing big band: cornets discarded for Freddie Hubbard-style trumpets complete with screamers and fall-offs, and the middle of the band imitating saxophones. At the heart of the accompaniment was a strong rhythm section of Stuart Walker (keyboards), Ian McCabe (bass guitar) and Daniel Dance (drums) who kept up a high energy backing.

Opening each half alone, St Kilda Brass displayed quality soloists of its own with Ralph Miller giving a splendid account of the Harry James Trumpet Concerto, principal cornet John Lewis all style in Georgia on my Mindand Ted “foot-long” Pheloung delivering Just a Closer Walk with New Orleans-style jazz panache.

St Kilda Brass is to be congratulated on its innovative Southern Victorian Charitable Trust concert series. For the last couple of years they have shown that the modern brass band is a versatile and exciting ensemble that can put on imaginative programmes and professional, entertaining concerts.

Peter Adams
Dunedin

Mayfair Theatre
26 September 2009
Conductor: Steve Miles
Guest Soloist: Gladys Hope QSM

A particularly grotty weather weekend in Dunedin was enhanced greatly last week by a very well programmed concert given by St Kilda Brass. The third concert in this year’s Southern Victorian charitable Trust concert series, the 20th Century & Beyond took the large Dunedin audience on a journey through music of the 20th Century.

The programme started with the 20th Century Fox Fanfare before a rousing rendition of the Stars & Stripes Forever March by the March king John Phillip Sousa. Some very fine Soprano playing from Ralph Miller set the scene for the entire Cornet section to step up and be featured in Hora Staccato at break neck speed before a complete change of mood in the very cheeky theme tune to the film Those Magnificent Men in Those Flying Machines. Gladys Hope was the chosen guest artist for the evening’s concert, a singer and actress well known throughout New Zealand and a real favourite with the Dunedin public. Gladys gave her first contribution for the evening with a wonderfully spaced rendition of the traditional air Danny Boy. So lyrical and controlled, Gladys held the audience in the palm of her hand before air raid sirens, gun fire, bombs and search lights set the scene for a war bracket featuring Dam Bustersand the medley Keep Smiling Through.

More of Gladys Hope’s beautiful singing followed with Summertimefrom Gershwin’s Opera Porgy & Bess before the bands major contribution of the evening, Dean Goffin’s Rhapsody in Brass. Dating back to the 1940’s Goffin’s work is a very audience friendly work full of lyrical melody and catchy phrases. St Kilda Brass really excelled in this performance which was very well prepared. Very careful balance and exquisitely precise ensemble were topped off by soloists on top form, in particular newly appointed Solo Horn player Erynne Scherf who’s rendition of the second movement was both beautiful and haunting.

Another Opening Another Show got the second half underway before the very complex music from West Side Story arranged by Eric Crees. This was another big work on the programme which was delivered with panache and excitement. A very unusual start to the next item came from Gladys Hope and St Kilda Brass’s Bonar Robertson acting out the opening conversation of With One Look from Sunset Boulevard which was specially arranged for this concert by MD Steve Miles. Complete with American accents the actors set the scene perfectly before Gladys Hopedelivered a show stopping performance. Holding the character throughout, Gladys showed the enthusiastic and appreciative audience just why she is held in such high regard as a character actress and musical theatre start. This was a real highlight of the evening and was fully deserved of the extended ovation.

MacArthur Park and What a Wonderful World brought a very 60’s flavour to the concert before an upbeat and vocal rendition of Hello Dolly. The pulse wobbled a little in this number but the bands singing was as usual a highlight! Gladys Hope finished her evening with another of Steve Miles arrangements, this time reliving the role of Mrs Potts that she played in both Wellington and Dunedin productions of Disney’s Beauty & the Beast. Greeted with an overwhelming ah from the audience after its introduction, Gladys performed the show’s title track flawlessly and was real pleasure to listen to.

The finale of the concert taking us into the beyond was Ray Farr’sGalaxies. Full of dynamic contrasts and dramatic effect, the finale was handled with aplomb bringing the evening’s music making to a very exciting close (Before of course the obligatory rendition of the bands signature tune When the Saints).

The bands concert series now has a very strong following due to some innovative thinking and consistent quality. It’s great to hear such positive comments from the Dunedin public that really are getting value for money from this series. I look forward with anticipation to the bands next event on 21st November, Swing with the Rat Pack which will relive the fun and frivolous entertainment of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Junior with special guests Doug Kamo, Kris Bate & Rob Enari.

Sean McDonald
Dunedin