Gunnedah Shire Band participated in this year’s Australian National Band Championships held at Brisbane City Hall, bringing home fourth place overall.

The band played four pieces, coming second in ‘own choice’, second in ‘stage march’, fifth in ‘hymn’, and sixth in ‘test piece’.

The band’s conductor, Sebastian Rowe, while only 19, has grown up in the band with his father and grandfather both having led the Gunnedah Shire Band.

Gunnedah Shire Band has been a staple of the community since 1885, however, in recent years the band faced some uncertainty.

Mr Rowe stepped up as conductor in the middle of 2024, and since then has been passionate about the success of the band.

“Around the end of 2023, the band almost completely fell apart to about four players, then in the middle of 2024 I took over and my entire goal was to get the band up to a point where we could play a competition at Nationals,” he said.

“I was told a lot when I first started, that it’d be a miracle if we didn’t come last in D Grade…the band has come a long way since.”

Gunnedah Shire Band have been practicing for more than 10 weeks in preparation for the Nationals, dedicating many hours to be ready for Nationals.

Practicing a minimum of five hours a week, then 16 hours during weekends every fortnight.

The band now consists of 35 players, all of varying ages, skill levels and experience.

For most of the band, this was their first Nationals competition, including Mr Rowe where he made his conductor’s debut.

“For about half our band, it was their first Nationals, so they were really quite stressed, but as soon as they got on the stage, they took off and really flourished,” he said.

Nationals consists of five grades – Premier Grade, A Grade, B Grade, C Grade, and D Grade.

Gunnedah Shire played C Grade, though Mr Rowe believes the band has the potential to play in B Grade.

“C grade is sort of that point where you’re bordering on B grade, you’re better than probably a good 70 or 80 per cent of the other bands, you’re taking it seriously, but you’re not quite there yet,” Mr Rowe said.

At Nationals, bands are required to play four pieces of music, the ‘test piece’ (chosen by Nationals, and individual to each grade), the ‘hymn’ (also referred to as a sacred piece), the ‘own choice’ (chosen independently by the band), and the ‘march’ (one of the shortest pieces of music the band has to play).

The Gunnedah Shire Band chose LUX by Roger Derongé as their hymn, a piece which was written in memoriam. Mr Rowe chose it as it let the more experienced players shine.

Mr Rowe chose Penlee by Simon Dobson as the ‘own choice’ piece, it was chosen for its drama, and to give the band an opportunity to really get into the music and enjoy it.

“Their favourite [piece] was without a doubt Penlee, I think we had that piece almost ready to go within about the first three weeks of rehearsal,” Mr Rowe said.

For the march, the band played Castell Coch.

Mr Rowe is proud of the band’s achievement, however, he believes that the Gunnedah Shire Band had potential to come in second, or even first place.

Due to scheduling, the Shire Band was slotted in to play after the Premier Grade, which Mr Rowe said, was quite intimidating for most.

“On the first day, we were scheduled to go at, probably, an inopportune time,” Mr Rowe said.

“As some band members are Seventh Day Adventists we had to play at night on the Saturday, and our band was the only C grade band that performed after premier grade.

“Going after premier grade really messed with the mental side of things I think, we didn’t play particularly well…I think we could have come much higher if they were a little bit less intimidated.

“There was a lot of disappointment when they came off stage on the Saturday, they knew they didn’t do well. But I don’t think they took into account just how impressive and what a fine group of musicians they are.”

The band has no intention of slowing down either, with Mr Rowe putting plans in place to start practicing for the next competition.

Mr Rowe is also planning on returning to Nationals with the band.

“I want to emphasise that I think the kids should be proud of themselves,” Mr Rowe said.

“They are probably the most promising young musicians I’ve ever seen.”