On 9^th August 12 bands from around Hawke’s Bay and one from St Paul’s, Hamilton took part in the Hawke’s Bay Band Festival which is organised every year by Lindisfarne College.  The festival was originally started by Mr John Snowling who still conducts one of the competing bands; the Bay City Symphonic Band which featured three Lindisfarne Old Boys. This year the festival was organised by our Director of Music, Dr Flemming Kristensen and gave our students a great opportunity to showcase their talents and perform in a competitive environment. This was doubly important as the National Band Festival was cancelled due to COVID-19.

The performances all took place on Sunday from 9.00 in the morning until 5.00 in the afternoon and amid quality performances, the Lindisfarne Jazz Band and the Lindisfarne Symphonic Bands netted Silver Awards.  An innovation this year was the introduction of the solo category which saw a wide range of entries from drums to voice and flute. Lindisfarne’s Antoni Milewski won the Most Promising Musician award in this category for his performance on the clarinet. The adjudicator, Old Boy, Ben Hunt was very complimentary about the overall quality of performances. In another innovation this year, Ben ran a very popular master class for musicians during the lunchtime break.

The festival was very well supported by Music Works which donated gift vouchers for the winning performers.

Article added: Wednesday 12 August 2020