BAND CONTEST

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 37, 14 February 1933, Page 9

BAND CONTEST

ADJUDICATOR ARRIVES

HIGH QUALIFICATIONS

High qualifications are held by Mr. Frank Wright, L.L.C.M., L.A.B. (R.A.M., R.C.M.), who arrived by the Wanganella from Sydney, to-day to act as adjudicator at the Dominion Band 'Contest, which commences at Dunedin on February 18. He is bandmaster of the Ballarat boidjers and Sailors' Memorial Band, and according to an English publication devoted to band;-matters he is one of the most brilliant cornet players in Australia haying won the cornet championship at Ballarat in 1919. Mr. Wright is wellknown as an adjudicator, and has acted in that capacity at five contests during the past eighteen months, including the last Australian championship contest, the biggest ever held in the Commonwealth. Interviewed by a "Post" reporter, Mr. Wright said that twenty-nine bands took part in the Australian championship, and there were about 300 soloists in the various.classes. He was looking forward to hearing the New Zealand bands play, having heard from some authorities that they were better than the Australian combinations and from others that they were well below the Australian standard. He was particularly anxious to hear how the A grade bands 6haped in the test piece, John Ireland's "Downland Suite," which he regarded as the greatest work ever written for a brass band. It was a most exacting piece and called for artistry and research from players of every section of the band; as well as from the conductor. The piece was used in the world's championship contest at Crystal Palace last year. AUSTRALIAN STANDARD. ' Mr. Wright said that the standard of band playing was very high in every grade in Australia. There was little difference between' the A and B grade bands, and the standard reached by some of the C grade combinations at a recent contest was equal to that of some of the A grade bands in bygone days. He was pleased that the New Zealand Bands' Association had adopted the idea of having test pieces in place of own-choice selections throughout. He thought it Was much -fairer for the bands concerned, and it wa3 a principle which was being adopted throughout the world. So far as Australia was concerned. New South Wales was the only State -which had not fallen into line. At the conclusion of the Dominion contest Mr. Wright intends •to visit bis brother, Constable W. G. Wright, of Auckland, whom he has .not seen for twenty years. A MUSICAL FAMILY. Although Mr. Wright himself did not say so, he is a member of a family which is very gifted musically. One of his sisters won the "Victorian contralto championship and another the violin championship at Ballarat. His brother, Norman, won the tenor championship at a competitions festival in New Zealand, and another brother is_ making a name for himself as a tenor singer under the name of Andre Navarre at the Milan Opera House. Dame Nellie Melba said of the opera star that his voice %vas the nearest approach, to that of Caruso.