Blowing their own trumpets: Brass Whanganui reign supreme at Nationals

The 34-piece Brass Whanganui band after being named B Grade champions last weekend. Photo / Supplied

Brass Whanganui had to book in some extra luggage on their flight home from Christchurch on Sunday after cleaning up at the New Zealand Brass Band Championships.

The 34-piece band came home as winners of the B Grade competition, and musical director Bruce Jellyman said there were victories across the board - both as a band and individually.

"It's been a tremendously good, collective band effort," Jellyman said.

The first two days consisted of solo and ensemble competitions.

"We had three kids in the band who were starting their first-ever national contest. They are only 13 and they all did really well," Jellyman said.

"The next day the seniors did their solos and there were a whole lot of placings in there.

"That keeps you busy while you're rehearsing and sorting stuff out. Then on the Friday the band events start."

First up, the band played a test piece called Temperamental by Fendall Hill.

"We were the first on stage, at 8.30 in the morning. It was a little bit cruel but that's beside the point," Jellyman said.

"Then we played a piece called Love Unknown, which is one of my favourite brass band hymn-like things.

"We won that category (hymn) and came second to Hutt City in the test piece. There were very close margins between them and us."

Bruce Jellyman at Christchurch Airport with the loot Brass Whanganui took home with them. Photo / Supplied

The following event was the street march, with Brass Whanganui picking up the highest points (other than an A Grade band) and most entertaining.

"We managed to beat all the other A Grade bands except one on the street march," Jellyman said.

"On the street march you can do some evolutions other than just walking down the road, so before we went away we were practising down on Mathieson St in the cold.

"That all worked out very nicely."

The following day the band performed a song in the "own choice" section, and Jellyman said the judge had "particularly liked" its performance.

"We won that section by a couple of points, which is notable, I think.

"Then you have an aggregate of all the music points, and we won that to become the champion B Grade band."

Jellyman said the band last won the crown in Blenheim in 2018, with a third-place finish in 2019.

He didn't rule out a move to the A grade in the future, something the band had done at least three times before under his watch.

"You have to win it twice in a row to automatically go up, but if you're there or thereabouts and you pick your moment, then you could make it as well.

"I'm not convinced our moment is there just yet, but if we did move up I'd expect we'd beat a couple of the lower A Grade bands.

"You don't know until you have done it though. The music is another step up, it's harder again."

Overall, this year's event had been a huge success, Jellyman said.

"It's not just the music stuff, it's the whole management side of things as well.

"We're lucky to have a tremendous team across the band. That certainly makes my life easier.

"That means I can just focus on music, which is great."