MCB - History of the Band

The band's history book

history

The Manningham Concert Band is one of Victoria's oldest concert bands. A concert band was created from a public meeting in July 1974 and the first rehearsal was held at Templestowe Technical School in September of that year. This band officially became "The Doncaster and Templestowe Municipal Band" in 1976.

Print out the Band Brochure In 1978 the ensemble ran as a brass band and then returned to the concert band format in 1983, and has remained as such until this present day. Incorporated as the "Manningham Musicians Association" in 1985 the band also ran both a stage band and a training band for a number of years. We commemorated our 30th Anniversary in 2006 with a logo designed by band member Barbara Jones. In January 2008 we moved to our new home at The Pines Learning and Activity Centre - officially opened by the then Mayor, Cr Ron Kitchingman.

Musical Directors

Michael Hughes July 1974-Feb 1977
Ken Evans May 1977-Feb 1978
Keith Anderson June 1978-Dec 1986
Robert Wagner Jan 1987-June 1994
Andrew van Gemert (acting) July 1994-Nov 1994
Kevin Morgan Nov 1994-Oct 1996
Andrew van Gemert Nov 1996-present

Andrew van Gemert Andrew has been associated with the band for 28 years, initially as a player of various instruments, then for several years as Assistant Conductor. For the last 15 years he has been Musical Director and has received the Menzies Australia Day Community award and the Victorian Bands League Merit award for service to community music.

At the recent Melbourne Schools Band & String Festival Finale Concert, Andrew was presented with an Excellence Award by the Australian Band and Orchestra Directors' Association. This award celebrates Andrew's contribution over many decades to "outstanding work as an ensemble director" in the school and wider community and his mentoring throughout the state of Victoria especially in the field of conducting ensembles and rehearsal techniques.
Andrew holds a Bachelor of Education degree from The University of Melbourne Institute of Education and is a member of the Association of Music Educators and a Friend of the Percy Grainger Museum. Through the Australian Band and Orchestra Association, he has been involved with teacher education, organising and presenting workshops on conducting technique and band literature. For many years, he has worked closely with overseas conductors whilst in Australia such as Prof. Craig Kirchhoff - University of Minnesota and Dr. David Waybright, University of Florida.
He is also in demand as a conducting teacher and guest conductor of camps and workshops and has been one of the adjudicators for the Melbourne Schools Band Festival in the past few years. Recently, he has been invited to present at various statewide music conferences.
Andrew has been teaching with the Department of Education for 19 years and is currently Head of Music at Viewbank College and teaches VCE music, Music performance and General classroom music. He has also been Producer and/or Musical Director for school and community musical theatre productions for 26 years.

Radio Interview

Andrew was interviewed on "Sounding Brass" on 3MBS 103.5FM where he spoke about the band and his approach to music (6 November 2010 - 6 min excerpt , 3.5MB mp3 file).

Newspaper Articles

"Family duo keep in tune with the band" Leader 20/8/01 (80kB pdf file)
"All in for a sound achievement" Manningham Leader 21/5/03 (590kB pdf file)
"Award for loving all that jazz" Manningham Leader 9/2/05 (360kB pdf file)
"Top brass" Manningham Weekly 27/7/05 (240kB pdf file)
"Concert set to raise the roof" Manningham Weekly 27/7/05 (260kB pdf file)
"Birthday bash for band" Manningham Leader 16/8/06 (410kB pdf file)
"Band takes on silver screen" Manningham Leader 22/8/07 (210kB pdf file)
"All set with their $7m centre" Manningham Leader 28/11/07 (380kB pdf file)
"Roll up for swinging time with Manningham Band" Leader 20/8/08 (330kB pdf file)
"Conduct most becoming" Melbourne Weekly Eastern 26/8/08 (160kB pdf file)
"Musical feast on menu at gala concert" Leader 26/8/09 (260kB pdf file)
"Let's strike up the band" Manningham Leader 24/3/10 (480kB pdf file)
"Show to feature British Music" Manningham Leader 11/8/10 (120kB pdf file)

Website Archive

The Band's website was selected for preservation by the State Library of Victoria as part of the (External) PANDORA Archive . It has been captured annually since 2004.

Website Design Peter McClive

Return to Manningham Concert Band welcome page City of Manningham website (External)

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