Our Own Choice Selections

A Grade Own Choice Test Selections
Thierry Deleruyelle Sand and Stars

Sand and Stars illustrates the journey of the aviator-writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry when he attempted to break the record for a Paris-Saigon flight. Having started as planned, the journey ended prematurely in the heart of the Sahara with a broken plane and the rescue, just in time, of the pilot and his navigator. Written in six parts, this highly colourful piece varies between a mysterious atmosphere, the deafening noise of a plane hitting the ground and the vivacity of an Arabic dance, punctuated with cornet and euphonium solos, before concluding with spectacular musical fireworks.

Thierry Deleruyelle is a French composer, conductor and percussionist who graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (CNSM) where he was awarded prizes in percussion, harmony, counterpoint, fugue and forms, and diplomas in analysis and orchestration. He was also unanimously awarded postgraduate diplomas (DFS) in composition and percussion with distinction.

His compositions have allowed him to work with many renowned artists and for his work to be recorded on CD by wind and brass bands all over the world. He has composed orchestral works (for symphony orchestra, wind and brass bands), chamber music and solo pieces but it is the bands that he like the most, particularly the wind band and brass band for which he writes exclusively on commission. He also won first prize at the international composition competitions of Saint-Amand-les-Eaux (France – 2005) and Haize Berriak (Spain – 2009).

A Grade Sacred Item Selection
David Chaulk And My Soul Overflow!

David Chaulk was past Principal Euphonium, Trombonist and Conductor of Wellington Brass and lead the band through the B Grade with national titles. Chaulk, a prolific composer sadly passed in 2018, this work was recorded by Wellington Brass NZ for NZ Music Month in collaboration with SOUNZ the Centre for NZ Music.

from the words of Albert Osbourne: “From a hill I know / Healing waters, flow / O rise, Immanuel’s tide/ And my soul overflow!”