(l. to r.) John McIvor (principal), Tom Shanahan (2nd), Neil Dixon (b-tb), Ken Young (tuba)
Main photo (r. to l.): Heather Clark (principal), Bob Burch, Ed White, Zoe Schaffer
Inline photo (l. to r.): Albert MacKinnon (principal), George Duncombe (3rd), Mike Gibbs (2nd), Gilbert Evans (co-principal)
Ken Young (principal tuba) began playing the cornet at 7 and toured abroad with the New Zealand Youth Orchestra in 1975 as a percussionist. During the tour he met his future wife, bought a tuba, and began learning how to play it. He is also a composer and has written a four movement work for the NZ Brass Quintet of which he and other orchestra players are members.
Principal horn when these photographs were taken was Heather Clark, who studied in New York and London and played in the Liverpool Philharmonic before joining the NZSO in 1980. In February she left to be with her husband on their farm. Bob Burch, second horn, has been with the orchestra since 1954. The third and fourth horns, Ed White and Zoe Schaffer are both Americans and joined in 1967 and 1975 respectively. Zoe’s husband is leader of the orchestra.
The NZSO gave its first concert in 1947, when its critics said it would last twelve months. Now, in a country the size of Great Britain with a population of only just over three million, it gives over eighty concerts a year and does frequent recordings work. In its time it has been conducted by, among many others, Warwick Braithwaite, James Robertson, John Hopkins, John Matheson, Sir Charles Groves, Diego Masson, Kurt Sanderling, Ron Goodwin, Igor Stravinsky and Sir William Walton.
(Our thanks to Concert Pitch magazine and Tom Shanahan for information and to Tom Shanahan for the photographs.)