GIRLS' BRASS BAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 102, 2 May 1931, Page 10

GIRLS' BRASS BAND.

;» ' " 1 NOVELTY FOR AUCKLAND. i . Before many months are past ifc « s expected that a girls' brass" band of j some ,a 0 instrumentalists will make its appearance before the public c* Aaefc - i? nd \ The fornati <™ of the novel band - kt\r f " embarked- upon j by Mr. A. .J. Hodgkins, an Engnsb band- . master who recently came from Canada m to reside permanently in New Zealand. J He is being assisted in bis work bv his ; j tnree daughters, Misses Marjorfe and . Ruby expert corneiists, and Barbara, . who plays a trombone. ; j Mr. Hodgkins is a native of Birmino--L |ham and it was when he went to , | Canada toliowing his demobilisation , arte- the war that he conceived tne idea , or terming a girls' band- He formed ; . a band at Victoria, British Columbia. ; and atter six months' practice the "iris gave a concert attended bv 3000 people. , A month later they competed in an op^n p I contest and secured second place. On the occasion of his first visit to New Zealand in 1927, Mr. Hodgkins formal a . : boys' band at Woodville. He said that j when he landed at Auckland last month , people had laughed at the idea of ?;rls . interesting themselves in band work, but j he had had 50 applications within three ' | weeks. Practices had already heen held. The band when ready would be unique] for as far as he was aware there was j no other brass band of its sort and size in the world. He had vet to hear of a | women's solid brass band plavin* a ]j j instruments. "