Cast of Thousands in Launceston for Easter Music Competitions

Launceston is full over Easter, it’s official, when the National Bands Competition rolls into town, filling up the hotels and performance venues, with the Albert Hall, the Princess Theatre and Launceston College all pressed into service for three full days over the Easter weekend.

Bands from all over Australia will fly, drive and be ferried into the state’s north over the coming days for the annual competition for bands of all ages and standards – mostly pretty darn good to play at this level. School bands, community bands and those like the Hobart Conservatorium and Launceston College’s own Symphonic Band, both of which include players who work at professional level. Three and a half thousand people are expected, and that’s just the players. With many of the bands made up players still at school and college, they will be accompanied by parents, teachers and sundry other organisational hangers-on.

At the centre of it all is a group of young people and their parents and teachers from Tasmania’s north, namely those who play with the Launceston College’s multiple bands, school students from as far afield as Cressy, the Tamar Valley and the north Coast, the college’s own music students, and adults who have joined the college’s bands and other community bands to bring the joy of playing music with others into their lives, and occasionally taking to the stage to bring that joy to an audience.

Those lucky enough to be included in these bands have been rehearsing since the middle of 2016, giving up Sunday mornings and one evening a week. One young woman aged fourteen was so determined to play with the College band in the nationals that she has remained Tasmania, lodging with family friends, while her family has moved to Queensland, where she will join them when the competition is over.

Parents bringing the students to rehearsals often stay and watch, such is their pride and pleasure in the quality of sound the bands produce. It never fails to impress and astonish that teenagers can put aside whatever other concerns life is throwing at them through some of the most turbulent years of their lives, and produce music of the most outstanding maturity and sensitivity. Friendships are also struck up, life lessons are learned, and a sense of community is nourished.

The Launceston College bands’ success is renowned in the music community throughout Australia, having won and been placed in state and national competitions many times over the years, doing Tasmania proud – Platinum at the Victorian State Music Competitions in 2015, first and second places in their categories in the Tasmanian and New South Wales competitions in 2016.

The family at the centre of this success is equally well known. Peter Quigley, Director of Music at Launceston College, has been justly honoured many times for the passion with which he drives the band’s competitions program. Peter’s wife Alida Quigley gives tirelessly of her time voluntarily to take on the onerous task of administration which the bands’ activities require. Both do what they do with a passion for the music and an admiration the young band members’ commitments and efforts, and the calibre of young adult the music program turns out. Many a wayward young person over the years has been given purpose and richness in their life through the Launceston College bands program, as other teaching and directing staff at the college testify.

Hearing Peter’s encouragement of the band in rehearsals, particularly when a piece is going well and they are achieving a sound well beyond what might be expected of their years, is to know that our sons and daughters are accomplishing something rare and notable.

It’s well known that Peter has a particular knack for choosing music which is a challenge for the band but which, once rehearsed and mastered, will stir and move those listening, who might not expect to hear a band comprising mostly of school students, to produce such a mature sound. Brass sections sway softly, timpani thunder and crash, and flutes and clarinets carry a lilting melody with assurance and grace. This year’s pieces have included the inevitable march – this is a wind and brass band after all – but also pieces based on Star Wars and the Doctor Who theme.

For all those in Tasmanian who profess a love of good music, this weekend proves a chance to support the feeder bands which supply our outstanding state orchestra and conservatoriums with its constantly refreshed feed of new players, and to witness those young people making music and magic happen in their formative years. Clear your calendar, open your ears, and prepare to be blown away by the sound.

Tickets are available for competition performances and gala concert over the Easter weekend. See the Australian National Bands Competition website – http://www.nationalbandchampionships.com.au/ – for more details.
Fiona Stocker