Canterbury brass bands celebrated in Museum exhibition

Canterbury Museum is opening its winter season exhibition Brilliant Brass this Friday 31 May, much to the delight of music and brass band enthusiasts throughout Canterbury.

For more than 150 years, brass bands have delighted audiences with entertaining music and energetic marching. Canterbury, in particular, has a long and proud history of brass banding dating back to the mid 19th Century. Well known bands were formed in suburbs or towns such as New Brighton and Woolston, Timaru and Ashburton. Private and workplace bands such as the Addington Workshop Band and the long-disbanded Toomber Boot Factory Band were also formed. Friendly rivalry developed into a healthy competitive spirit that continues today.

Visitors to Brilliant Brass can expect to see a range of instruments, uniforms, programmes, and banding paraphernalia including ‘Sid’s Cat’ the Woolston Brass Band mascot from 1923.

Canterbury Museum Human History Curator, Sarah Murray, says the exhibition celebrates the history of banding in Canterbury, including the more quirky side of the musical genre that will be of interest to music enthusiasts of all ages.

“In 1892, Fred and Joshua Painter formed the Christchurch Professional Bicycle Band. One of the first of its type in the world, the band played their instruments while cycling the streets of Christchurch. It’s humorous stories such as these that will feature in the exhibition,” she says.

Christchurch Symphony Orchestra member, Brett Painter, is the great-grandson of Joshua Painter and is pleased to see that Brilliant Brass will include information about his family connections to early banding in Canterbury.

"As a youngster I used to greatly enjoy visits to Canterbury Museum where photos and medals from the cycling exploits of my great-grandfather were displayed’, he says.

In 2009 Brett set about re-forming this iconic Christchurch group as the Be There Bicycle Band and they now perform music from the first half of the 1900s in replica costumes and on custom-made replica bikes.
Today, brass bands continue their role as community-based musical groups made up of amateur (unpaid) musicians. In 2013, twelve brass bands in Canterbury continue the tradition of providing music for the community and teaching young musicians.

Brilliant Brass is free to the public and opens at Canterbury Museum on Friday 31 May in the temporary exhibition gallery on Level 3. For more information see www.canterburymuseum.com