Band Walks Away With Most Of The Brass

Illawarra Mercury

Saturday July 6, 2002

By MICHELLE SINGER

Fourteen-year-old Lachlan Dellar has every right to beam as brightly as his tenor horn.

After all, he is the under 15 and under 19 NSW solo Champion of Champions.

The talented musician was one of 33 members of the City of Wollongong Brass Band who won a swag of awards at the NSW State Solo Championships last weekend.

Musical director Tara Grimm said that, although Lachlan had performed well, other band members had achieved very good results.

``The band members did extremely well," she said.

``We competed in 10 musical instrument categories as well as percussion.

``Soloists competed only against their own instrument.

``After each instrumental champion is decided the winners compete against each other to decide the champion of champions, which is awarded to the state's overall winner for each age group."

The competition was divided into three age groups, juvenile (under 15), junior (under 19) and open.

There were also three sections for soloists, quartets or groups of up to eight players.

She said many of the winners were seasoned campaigners such as Andrew Comensoli who won the junior euphonium section for the third year in a row.

The juvenile competitors were required to play their own choice of music, whereas the junior and open sections played set test pieces.

She said band members also won numerous second and third placings.

``I was just hoping for members to play the best they could, but the results were definitely better than expected," she said.

``All weekend people were talking about the Wollongong Brass Band because we were so well represented in the awards."

Ms Grimm said the junior and senior bands would now concentrate on trying to win their heat during the Battle of the Bands competition at the end of this month.

And the winners are

* Juvenile (under 15) section: Soprano cornet - Evan Williams. Tenor horn - Lachlan Dellar. Euphonium - Andrew Comensoli. Bass trombone - Lionel Thompson. Quartet and ensemble: Wollongong City. Champion of Champions - Lachlan Dellar

* Junior (under 19) section: Flugel horn - Kaylene Milner. Tenor horn - Lachlan Dellar. Quartet: Wollongong. Champion of Champions - Lachlan Dellar

* Percussion solo section: Snare drum - Kaylee Dunstan. Timpany - Kaylee Dunstan. Mallet (Xylophones) - Kaylee Dunstan. Drum Kit - Peter Reay. Champion of Champions - Kaylee Dunstan.

* Veteran solo section: Cornet - Ken Milner