Festival 2023 Auckland
NZCBA is excited to confirm Festival 2023 will be held in Auckland, August 4 – 6, at Westlake Girls High School. Our joint host bands this year are University of Auckland Concert Band and West City Concert Band.
PLEASE NOTE the change in venue from Auckland Girls Grammar School to Westlake Girls High School. This decision was not made lightly, but was necessary to provide the best festival experience for participating bands and musicians.
Registrations have now closed.
Here is a link to: Information, Guidelines and Rules
Late registrations may be accepted at the organiser’s discretion depending on schedule capacity. Please contact gtrail@nzcba.org directly by email if you wish to be considered for late entry.
Registrations for All-Comers Band is still available here: All-Comers Band registration
Band Adjudicators
Both band adjudicators are long time friends of NZCBA and we welcome them back.
Dr Ken Dye
Ken Dye is Director of Bands and Professor of Music at the University of Notre Dame. He is a graduate of the University of Houston, where he holds a Doctorate in Music Education and a MBA in Marketing. He has also earned degrees of Master of Arts in Music from California State University and Bachelor of Music from the University of Southern California. As a composer/arranger, Ken Dye served as a staff writer for several publishers and served as composer/arranger for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Band His writing activities have produced over 1900 works for Band and orchestra performed throughout the U.S. and overseas. Under his direction, Notre Dame Band has performed concerts in the Sydney Opera House, Beijing Concert Hall, and Carnegie Hall, as well as toured Europe, Asia, South America, and the Pacific. In 2011, Notre Dame Band was awarded the prestigious Sudler Trophy, considered the “Heisman Trophy” of collegiate bands.
Dye also serves as a concurrent Professor of Computer Applications developing the course “Music through Technology” and teaches music from a business perspective in a course entitled “The Business of Music.” Most recently his research has involved the musical history of the Olympics and he has incorporated it into a new course: “Music and the Olympics: A Soundtrack for Competition, Ceremony, and Celebration”. Prior to Notre Dame, Ken Dye taught at Rice University, University of West Georgia, schools in California and Mexico City. He has also served as director of the Opening Ceremonies of the U.S. Olympic Festival and conductor of the All-American College Band at Disney World.
David Gallaher MNZM
David’s musical journey began in Dunedin playing cornet with the St Kilda Junior Band. Trumpet and choral singing were his other formative early music mainstays, then time at Otago University and Dunedin Teachers’ College. Apart from a brief stint in the UKI, most of his teaching and conducting career has been in Christchurch. The development of school bands in those regions was a significant part of David’s teaching commitments.
He directed Woolston Band and Christchurch Youth Symphonic Band for a decade in the mid-1990s. During this tenure, Woolston Brass enjoyed success in competitions, developed a regular series of public performances, undertook overseas tours and several recordings. CYSB had an active concert and touring schedule during this period.
David was instrumental in fostering the commissioning of New Zealand works for brass band, including for the National Band of New Zealand, which he directed from 2003 to 2005. The fostering of New Zealand music is still a keenly supported aspect of his music making. David spent several years on the NZCBA Executive as a committee member representing South Island concert bands. In 2010 David was awarded an MNZM for Services to Music. In 2018 David became the seventh Director of Music for the Royal New Zealand Air Force Band based.