In 2022, another successful year has passed for Burnside High School's big band.

This auditioned band is made up of 20 members who all gather on a monday after school each week to play various forms of jazz music. This year I had the privilege of sharing the role of section leader for the trumpets along with my colleague Ben Macdonald.

Our first concert this year was at the end of July, at the annual JazzQuest competition in Ara, school of jazz. For the twelfth year in row the BHS big band took first place for Best big band and a Gold Award, something all our members and our director Mr Petch were proud of. Following this in September the Big Band had a fantastic showcase for big band and strings at the Aurora centre where we performed a selection of songs by Ella Fitzgerald as well as our own set list for the year. This featured Monet Schutte on vocals and a selection of string players from many age groups across Burnside.

I think many of the band can agree that the highlight of big band this year was our trip up to Wellington for the national Jazz Bandit competition, run by Rodger Fox. Twelve bands were selected from the first audition round all across New Zealand to compete in Wellington's Victoria University as well as solo and composition competitions, where a number of individuals from the big band were also selected for these. The band had a successful day of competition and playing, the big band took first place with a $6000 Music Works prize and some of our members also won prizes like this. William Kao won first place for the improvisation section and Monet Schutte took second place. Sho Woodhouse won best drum improvisation and Chicks from Corea, a jazz combo made up of Dylan Blundell, Dylan Jonkers, Monet Schutte, William Kao and Jacob Mullen won first place for best composition. Overall this was a fantastic trip full of great music and memories.

For the past five years at Burnside I’ve enjoyed every single year of being in the big band and the opportunities it has given me. It has helped me and many others grow as a musician and become confident in jazz playing and the big band thanks Mr Petch along with every section leader for making the big band such a successful and exceptional group.