In August 2006 Nick Sharpe arrived in New Zealand in conjunction with the Nelson City Brass Band to create the Nelson Brass Academy, a music school offering affordable brass lessons to anyone wanting to learn a brass instrument. There are now over 110 brass students associated with the Academy, with Academy pupils located as far away as LakeRotoiti in the Nelson Lakes.

There are 3 ensembles in the Nelson Brass Academy, the Junior Brass Band, which pupils are eligible to join after only 5 lessons, the Yourh Brass Band for those who have been playing around 3 years, and a satellite ensemble based in St Arnaud, known as the Rotoiti Band, which has a broad range of abilities.


Every year, all bands perform in a variety of different settings, giving one formal concert per term and also less formal performances in the Nelson area. A very popular event is the Junior Brass Band schools tour where, on the last Tuesday of November every year, the band performs to three Primary schools in the region in one day.

Band Camp 2010!

The 4th Top of the South/ West Coast Brass Band Camp was recently held in Teapot Valley. Players of all ages came together to play in the Junior and Intermediate bands and generally have a good time. The extensive rehersals meant that there wasn't a lot of free time so leisure cut into sleeping hours meaning there were many weary players in the morning rehersals and in some instances certain people were playing pieces that were different to the rest of the band(though at least nobody fell asleep during rehersal this year!).
The pieces were all excellent and we were able to play them to the best we could thanks to sectionals taken by very good tutors and the bands were well conducted by Mike (Junior Band) and Nick and Mick (Intermediate Band).
The concert came together wonderfully with the Junior Band's performance of When The Saints Come Marching In, proving a crowd pleaser. The Intermediate band playing To The Sky was also very impressive.

Nick Somerville

Term 3 newsletter

Dear Academy Member,
Welcome back!

First of all congratulations to the Nelson Vivace Youth Brass Band for a very successful tour of the South Island culminating in a win at the National Brass Band Competition in Dunedin. They were a credit to Nelson in the way that they performed and behaved throughout the week.

This term we have band camp (Sep 10th-12th – is your form in yet?!) and the Youth band will be performing at the Nelson Performing Arts Competitions at 10.45 on Sunday 15th August at the School of Music (please be there half an hour before in uniforms Youth band)

The Nelson Brass Academy blog is now up and running at http://nelsonbrassacademy.blogspot.com .
All notices will now appear on the blog as well as in paper and email form, and also the odd article from band members!

Next term will be busy with appearances at Red Square, Hope Hall, the Junior Band tour, and the end of year concert.

Also, early next term Nelson is very lucky to have the National Secondary Schools Brass Band in town for a residential course and some concerts – watch this space!

Notes from the Brian Chin masterclass

Here are my notes from the Trumpet master class session

How to play efficiently:

dont push too hard, if you are finding it too difficult to play back off

try to get a clean sound (- sort of ringing )

on each note go sharp and flat and then try to go in the middle to see which sounds best

tongue placement - try to get a small space in your mouth, make an eww sound

if you are playing fast keep your fingertips on top of the keys

make it as easy as possible for yourself

learn to love your instruments, enjoy practicing!

Sophie Price

Adjudicator's comments

All recovered?
Adjudicators comments below:
Jupiter (D Grade perf) - Band moves well together, note values well observed, except last pause. 1, 2, hold. Always search for tuning - so every note is centred. It is a lifelong quest but well worth it. Can you sing your parts in tune? Thank you.
Dream Catchers (D Grade perf) - An interesting choice. Demanding on soloists, who all did very well indeed. Try and shorten up syncopation figures, seperate would be a better term to give greater clarity to them. A solid performance. Well prepared, well directed. Thank you.
Liberty Bell (D Grade perf) - Played with much pulse, energy and commitment. keep the 6/8 pulse always going, avoid going into 3/8. Keep it strong weak, strong weak, [leading to] greater flow and less ponderous. Listen to 87 and 88, the rests disappear and you begin to accel! Thanks for a well prepared, interesting programme full of vitality, enthusiasm and lots of musical potential. Thank you.
Jupiter (Youth perf) - Well done, tough ask to repeat your programme but seems more confident this time. Well done. Thank you.
Dream Catchers (Youth perf) - Well done again. Great work soloists. Tough ask *2!!! Some of the scalic passages didn't work as well this time. Work on more seperation of syncopatic figures. Take great care at fff that sound is always nice and full. Give lips room. One of the highlights of the contest, Thanks
Liberty Bell (Youth perf) - Great to see you all out in the open! Same comments as last time. All the very best for your musical futures. So many good things lie ahead for you all. Well done, Nick!
Thanks all.



Well done team!

Final Day

Well, the final day began with a very early morning with us having the coach packed by 7.30, eventually hitting the road at 8.30. Thirty minutes in and the Potterthon began, all of the Harry Potter films back to back over the journey!
Morning tea was spent at the lovely Timaru Botanical Gardens, and the band (who I felt were beginning to look a little tired) at lunch at the Hornby Mall. A few more Harry Potters later, we pulled into Murchison, having dropped off some band members en route. A quick dinner and we were finally on the last leg, arriving at the bandroom around 10.15.
Thank yous must go to all of my parent helpers on the tour, Albert the coach driver, Julie for her fund raising skills, and Peter for pulling the trip together. It was a fantastic trip that will live long in the memory.
I'd also like to thank my team leaders for the tour: Chocolateer McQuinn, Augustus Deans, Karate Kid Giddall, Howlin Mad Melon Burton, Hopalong Clark, and Too Cool For Sleep Robinson - great job!
Keep an eye on the blog for our adjudicator comments and Mike's take on it all....

Day 5

Day 5 saw the band get up, rehearse, and then have an easy day leading up to the contest. The rehearsal was quite eventful as the band had some players sit out due to the various rules and regs. The first half saw Olivia, Tom and Paddy sit out, with Paddy and Tom giving an American Idol feedback to the bands performance of Dream Catchers (Tom 'Rubbish', Paddy 'I think it was lacking a little something in the horn section, or maybe someone...'), then the adults had a rest whole the youth band performed.
Rehearsal over, we then took a trip up Signal Hill (apologies if spelt wrong) where the girls got in touch with their spiritual sides joining in a dance session with a tour group (wait till you see the video) and then ate lunch at the Botanical Gardens, followed by a walk round the aviary. Andrew Leighs and Paddy hit it off well with a parrot, with Paddy successfully managing to get a conversation out of it.
The band then went back to the hostel for a rest before setting off for the contest.
On arrival at the venue the band warmed up, and took to the stage giving a great rendition of the pieces, Jupiter, Liberty Bell, and Dream Catchers to a very appreciative audience in the D Grade. After a short break, they then did the very same pieces all over again in the Youth contest. It is hard to say how proud I felt of the band at this point, they delivered two fantastic performances and, win or lose, we gained a lot of new fans.
At the results ceremony, adjudicator David Gallagher was evidently very impressed and excited by what he had heard from us (written comments to come in a later post),the band came last, but certainly not least, in the D Grade, with the winning conductor (Roxburgh band)full of praise for our band when he accepted his trophy. We won the Youth section, winning a huge trophy, with Fenella winning a trophy for best youth soloist (well done Fenella!). After many photos, we got on the bus, sang all the way back to the hostel, and arrived to find 30 pizzas waiting for us, which we attacked savagely.
The band then settled down into party mode for the rest of the night.
Well done team!

The Finale

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