11/24/19 - Band welcomes maestro John Snowling to annual fall concert


On Sunday, November 24, 2019, the Notre Dame Band program was thrilled to welcome John Snowling of Lindisfarne College in Hastings, NZ to campus for its annual fall Symphonic Band/Symphonic Winds concert. In addition to traditional and modern British music by composers including Ralph Vaughn Williams and Philip Sparke, the program also included works from Andrew Lloyd Webber and music from the James Bond films. 

John Snowling has been involved in music and bands all of his life after being raised in the Ipswich Citadel Corps of the Salvation Army in England. From 1966 to 1971 he was a musician and principal trumpet in H. M. Coldstream Guards Band, London. This included performing on State occasions such as Trooping the Colour, Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace, Royal Investitures, Radio and Television Broadcasts, Recordings and Concerts. He was also in the Coldstream Band that toured throughout the United States and Canada for three months in 1970.  

In 1978, John emigrated with his family to New Zealand. He has conducted many ensembles including the Hastings Citizens’ Brass Band, Bay Cities’ Symphonic Band, Canterbury Youth Brass Band, Hawke’s Bay Youth Band, New Zealand National Youth Brass Band and as Associate Conductor of the inaugural New Zealand National Youth Concert Band.

John is now in demand as an adjudicator. He has judged on a number of occasions at both the New Zealand National Concert Bands’ Festival and the New Zealand Brass Band Championships. He has also judged all but one of the provincial Brass Band Contests in New Zealand and has twice been invited to be part of the international panel of judges at the Pacific Basin Band Festival in Hawaii. 

John is a Past National President of the New Zealand Concert Bands’ Association. In 2003 he was awarded Life Membership of the Hawke’s Bay Orchestral Society for Services to Bands and received a Community Services Award from the Hastings District Council for his contribution to the Arts. This was followed by Life Membership of the New Zealand Concert Bands’ Association in 2010.

On his retirement at the end of 2016, John was presented with a coveted Lindisfarne College Honours Tie at the annual Prize-Giving in recognition of his twenty-two years of meritorious service to the school and its students. 

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