Dunedin’s world-renowned brass band is prepared to toot its own horn as it celebrates 125 years of musical history. Past and present members are gearing up to mark St Kilda Brass Band’s 125th anniversary with a weekend of celebrations on August 8 and 9. Musical director Prof Peter Adams said it was a significant milestone for the band, which had been part of Dunedin’s soundtrack “in concert, on the march, on the contest stage, at Anzac services, at the Botanic Gardens — always involved in our community”. The band began as the Mornington Brass Band in 1901 but found a home in St Kilda when the local borough council offered it twenty times more annual funding than Mornington’s council did. A historic high-note was the band’s 1949 success at the Australian National Championships where it “cleaned up and won by six points”, he said. “They were greeted by 5000 people at Port Chalmers welcoming them back as champions of Australia — mayoral reception, all that sort of stuff. “It was a big deal in 1949 — before television.” OTAGO IMAGES/OTAGO DAILY TIMESLooking forward to the St Kilda Brass Band's 125th anniversary are (back, from left) band member Brianna Loan, guest Harry Porthouse, band members Hannah Goodall, Ah-Lek Tay; (front, from left) musical director Prof Peter Adams, guests Leanne and Ian Porthouse and band member Errol Moore. Photo: Gregor Richardson A perception of brass bands playing only “oompa oompa music and marches” was ill-founded — rather, they often played music “hot off the press” including pieces with a great degree of musical technicality, Prof Adams said. “Brass bands — these amateur musicians don’t blink an eye.” Prof Adams said a standard brass band had about 30 players while St Kilda sat closer to 40 members “if everybody turned up to rehearsal”. Pleasingly, in recent years, a majority of members were under 25 years old, he said. The anniversary concert on August 9 — dubbed And the Saints Go Marching On — will feature the Porthouse family, who had travelled from Wales for the celebrations. Mr Porthouse, regarded as one of the brass band movement’s leading conductors and educators, first played for St Kilda in 1990, coming from the United Kingdom to play as a guest principal cornet. He returned several times in the following years, including as guest soloist for the band’s centenary in 2001. Outside New Zealand, the St Kilda Brass Band was “one of the most internationally known historically in our weird little brass band world”, he said. This year, Mr Porthouse travelled to Dunedin with his wife Leanne and their son Harry, 21,themselves both cornet players. Harry followed in his father’s footsteps and played as guest principal cornet for St Kilda in the past two national B-grade contests, which the band won back-to-back. “Then when the band suggested it was the 125th anniversary, for the three of us to come out, [it was] a nice, really tidy way for us to celebrate,” Mr Porthouse said. The trio had commissioned a piece of music titled Saints and Dragons to perform at the concert — featuring sections of Pōkarekare Ana, When The Saints Go Marching In and the New Zealand and Welsh national anthems. Much like classical music, people kept saying brass band music would die out — “well, it hasn’t”, Mr Porthouse said. “Brass bands are a massively versatile ensemble, from playing very contemporary music to playing arrangements of classical music.” Bands’ approaches had evolved as audiences changed — for example, performing film soundtracks alongside movie screenings. The anniversary celebrations also included a reunion dinner and a history session. Details can be found on the St Kilda Brass Band website. ruby.shaw@odt.co.nz
