All you need for Christmas, and a brass band too. Photo: Supplied
Wellingtonians are in the right place for some Christmas cheer as the festive season approaches.
Led by Helen Tupai, the all-Pasifika Signature Choir is teaming up with the country's finest brass ensemble, Wellington Brass, for a Christmas Concert this weekend.
Organisers are hoping to attract a full house to Wellington's Michael Fowler Centre for a concert of festive music, new and old.
Fresh from sell-out concerts in Auckland and Australia, the Signature Choir will bring a unique Pasifika flavour to the concert of Christmas favourites.
Wellington Brass music director Dave Bremner told RNZ Concert's Bryan Crump he'd been dreaming of a Pasifika Christmas ever since he performed with the Signature Choir in his capacity as Principal Trombone with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
Christmas is often a busy time for brass bands, not just in terms of music making but also fundraising.
Wellington Brass music director, David Bremner. Photo: NZSO
As a teenager, Bremner remembers riding around the streets of New Plymouth on the back of a truck performing Christmas tunes and soliciting donations for the city's band. Well, there was a trio of trucks, to be precise.
"They'd split the band in three. It was our main way of raising money."
Bremner reckons the approach would get the band in trouble with Health and Safety these days.
"One time I fell off," he recalls. Luckily Bremner's bandmates saved his precious euphonium from hitting the kerb.
Those were the days before he took on the trombone.
Bremner's connection with Pasifika music goes beyond the Signature Choir. Earlier this year, he spent time in Tonga helping to set up the Kingdom's first national youth brass band.
This year the band gathered in Tonga's capital, Nukuʻalofa. In future years, the hope is to see the band performing in some of Tonga's outlying islands.
Meanwhile, Wellington Brass - having won the best band category at this year's National Brass Band championships - plans to take on the world in 2026, in the band section of the World Music Contest in the Netherlands.
"That will require a bit of funding," remarked Crump. "Are you going to get out on the truck again?" he asks.
Given the Health and Safety issues, probably not, says Bremner. But with the band's clubrooms right next to the Johnsonville rail line in Ngaio, don't be surprised if you find members fundraising down the back of a suburban rail unit sometime soon.
Wellington Brass: national champions 2025, taking on the world in 2026. Photo: David Bremner
