Webb and Russell in NSS Brass Band

Kent Russell and Patrick Webb have been accepted into the 2011 National Secondary Schools Brass Band.  In June of this year, the Brass Bands Association of New Zealand invited secondary school students to apply to join.  The application process required the students to organise and submit a DVD recording of their own performance of the prescribed audition requirements.  In August, 41 students were selected to form the Band.  Membership in the NSSBB means that the student is performing at an elite level for their chosen instrument, in New Zealand.

The band formed in Nelson during the recent study break, under the baton of Nick Sharpe, Director of the Nelson Brass Academy.  There have been four days of intensive small and large group tutoring, with prominent brass musicians, covering all areas of brass and percussion playing and musicianship.  At the end of this period the Band will be split into small performance groups which will perform at 15 schools in the greater Nelson area, plus church services.

Past members of the NSSBB have successfully gone on to study music at University, and have also been accepted into the New Zealand Army Band.  We congratulate Kent and Patrick on achieving this important milestone in their musical careers.