South Canterbury school band a big hit in Parliament

  • Jim Sutton
Unassigned Portfolio

Waimataitai School's brass band wowed the audience at Parliament today, Aoraki MP Jim Sutton said.

The band is the only primary school brass band in the country, and is currently on a North Island tour. They played for half an hour today, at Parliament's Banquet Hall.

Mr Sutton said the 66-member band, which has been in existence since 1942, was a credit to the people of South Canterbury.

"Timaru can be very proud of the achievements of the Waimataitai School brass band. They have certainly made a big impression on the people at Parliament."

Music director David Woolf said he was proud of how well the children were doing.

"They're just playing so well."

Tour manager Simon Hocking said the children in the band had been excited about coming to Wellington, particularly about coming to Parliament.

"They were leaning on the bus windows, saying 'There's Parliament, there's the Beehive'. It's just an honour to be here."

While the band made it to Parliament, their bus didn't, because of Parliament's heightened security measures at the moment. Workers were impressed to see the rows of uniformed band members crossing the parliamentary lawn carrying their instruments.

The Waimataitai School band will play at Te Papa on Saturday afternoon at 4.45pm, and will also play at the Wellington Provincial Band Championships in Masterton on Sunday. They are also to be filmed playing for children's television programme "What Now" this weekend.