Trumpeter to be conductor

Press, 29 July 1989, Page 9

Trumpeter to be conductor

By

JENNY LONG

A home-coming New Zealand trumpeter, and former conductor of the National Band, has been appointed conductor of the award-winning Skellerup Woolston Band. Mr Ken Smith, a member of a well-known New Zealand brass band family (his father was K. G. L. Smith, also a National Band conductor), replaces Mr Mervyn Waters, who died recently.

Mr Smith said this week that he had been wanting for some time to return to New Zealand and was pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to music here.

Mr Smith is at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, as chairman of the department of brass and percussion. He will take up his appointment with Skellerup Woolston early next year. The band is being conducted by Mr Norman Goffin, of Wellington, until then. Mr Smith first won the national cornet championship when he was 18. He has been a trumpet soloist with orchestras worldwide, and conducted the National Band in 1985, at performances at the World Music Concourse in Kerkrade, The Netherlands. He has an interest in music of many kinds, and enjoys arranging.

Mr Smith said there were many combinations with brass which had yet to be fully explored, and he had a great love of brass and voices, for example.

Brass bands should be continually striving to create new colours, Mr Smith said. “Brass bands have

achieved many steps forward in their sounds, but they can still achieve more. “There’s a diversity of sounds to explore. They can be delicate, or flippant, and should not be locked into one, same sound,” Mr Smith said. Skellerup Woolston could expect some changes under its new leader, and would be reaching people further afield than simply the brass-band community. “This is no disrespect to the past, but simply that anyone new would want to make some changes,” Mr Smith said. The president of the Skellerup Woolston Band, Mr Tony Lewis, said the band would enter a new era as it approached its centennial in 1991. “Changes had been discussed with Mr Waters before his death. He appreciated that the band had become rather isolated, and needed to reach out to perform for the enjoyment of others.” The band was planning major events for 1991, and an overseas tour was possible, Mr Lewis said.