On 1 November 2026 we unleashed a concert of movie themes at St Paul's church in Katikati.

Notable moments included Fleur Weaver's powerful solo performance of Gabriel's Oboe from The Mission and Eliza Wallace's euphonium rendition of I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables. Sadly for us, Eliza is heading off to university in Christchurch next year, so this was our last chance to accompany them.

Kit Wilson did a fantastic job as emcee, ensuring the crowd and band alike had a great time.

On 31 October 2026 we performed a mini-concert of movie themes at Bethlehem Shores in Tauranga.

This crowd is starting to feel like old friends, as we have performed here on several previous occasions and are always made to feel very welcome. Thank you Bethlehem Shores for hosting us yet again. We will look forward to our next visit.

On 16 August 2026 we filled the Katikati War Memorial Hall for a musical world tour under the baton of guest conductor Brett Lowe.

The programme featured pieces evoking exotic locales, from Australia to Austria, Africa to America, and beyond. We enjoyed the shade of a coolibah tree, watched the jugglers in a Persian market, looked in awe on the massive skies above the Eurasian steppes, and enjoyed the ambience of a Bavarian beerhall. All from the comfort of Katikati!

Big thanks to Brett for making this event so special!

On 28 June 2026 we performed at the NZ Concert Band Association Festival at St Peter's School in Cambridge.

Our programme included two pieces written specifically for us - The Mural Town March by John Gibbons, and The Landing by John Kean. The adjudicators gave us great feedback and awarded us a Silver certificate.

Check out our performance, available in full on YouTube!

Later on ANZAC Day, 10:30 am Saturday 25 April 2026, the band played at Waihi's ANZAC commemorative service.

Thank you Hauraki District Council for inviting us to be a part of this commemoration once again. We thank guest speaker Lou Beer for her heartfelt and poignant speech. Your service and sacrifice, and those of others, will not be forgotten.

On ANZAC Day, Saturday 25 April 2026, band members contributed music at the 5:45 am ANZAC dawn ceremony outside Katikati War Memorial Hall.

Thank you Katikati RSA for inviting us. It is always an honour and a privilege to be a part of this service. The sacrifices others have made will always be remembered.

Our first public concert of 2026 took place on Sunday 19 April 2026 at St Paul's Church in Katikati. In it we took a virtual world tour with tunes from many of the diverse cultures that have contributed to modern Kiwi society. 

We also performed a special new piece The Landing composed for us by band member John Kean to comemmorate the founding of Katikati by Irish settlers.

We previewed part of our 2026 Concert Series 1 to the Bethlehem Shores and Bethlehem Country Club communities on Saturady 18 April 2026. The programme included a beautiful euphonium solo by Eliza Wallace on the Benedictus from The Armed Man by Karl Jenkins, and a wonderful bass solo by Malcolm Gapes in Tuba's Lover by Takanobu Saito.

Many thanks to Bethlehem Shores for hosting us in their remarkable Clubhouse. It is always a great pleasure to play there.

The concert band played on Sunday 1 February 2026 as one of the attractions at the annual Katikati A&P Show. This always a fun event, with fantastic farm animals, donkey rides, puppets, a sheep agility show, mussel shucking races, a lolly scramble, wood chopping, fashion parade, arts and crafts, photography, vintage tractors, and of course....the Katikati Concert Band.

(Incidentally, next time they get AI to design their poster, the A&P Committee should make sure the axeman gets his axe around the right way!) 

On 14 December 2025 we led community carol singing on the lawn in front of Athenree Homestead. The event also featured the Waihi Beach Singers, an interactive nativity play, and getting to know some of our elected representatives better. The culminations was Santa arriving on a buggy drawn by two miniature horses to distribute lollies to the crowd!

We had a spectacular sunny afternoon on Saturday 13 December 2025 for our outdoor Christmas Concert on the stage in the beautiful Haiku Reserve. An audience of about 200 showed up to hear us and the Mural Town Singers present a selection of Christmas carols and seasonal favourites.

Many thanks to Tauranga Western Bay Community Event Fund, Audio Solutions, Katikati Lions, Katch Katikati, and Katikati Twilight Concerts for making this awesome community event a success.

Sunday 18 November 2025 was a spectacular day to be playing Christmas music under the redwood tree at historic Athenree Homestead. The annual Christmas Fair was bigger than ever this year, and stallholders told us that our music floating over the market tents really added to the festive atmosphere.

Special kudos to Eliza Wallace for soloing on euphonium Walking on the Air from The Snowman.

On 25 and 26 October 2025 we performed two concerts of classical favourites from Bach, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Holst and Gershwin (plus a couple of modern "classics" from Queen and Deep Purple!)

Selections includes Hungarian Dance No.5, Peer Gynt Suite 1, March from The Nutcracker and the quirky Walking the Dog.

Thanks to St Paul’s Presbyterian Church Katikati and Bethlehem Country Club for hosting us, and to our great audiences.

Unfortunately high winds and rain meant we had to cancel two performances on 13-14 September 2025 as part of the 150th Anniversary celebrations for the founding of Katikati by Irish settlers. We had planned a programme of Irish tunes for the open air market and at Athenree Homestead. 

Nevertheless, several current and past band members did play as part of Brett Lowe's Katikati All Stars Dance Band at the very successful Settler's Ball, which took attendees back through time to experience music and social dancing as it really was from 1875 to 1950.

On 6 September 2025 we hosted a free all-day workshop and mini-concert, focusing on Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No.1. The suite includes two of the best-known tunes in classical music: the atmospheric Morning and the terrifying In the Hall of the Mountain King. We also played Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.

Thank you to our musical director Hiro Kobayashi for running the workshop, to Oceana Gold Waihi Operation for sponsoring the event, and for all who attended and/or bought raffle tickets to support our band.

We thank Katch Katikati for inviting us to showcase our community group as part of the National Volunteer Week celebration on 17 June 2025. We played Flowerdale, a beautiful Scottish highland hymn, featuring our musical director Hiro Kobayashi on the cornet.

There was a good turnout of audience, and it was wonderful to hear about the amazing work our local volunteers are doing for our community. The organisers received great feedback about how nice it was to have music there.

On 26 May 2025, we played at the Matamata Festival of Music. In our half hour slot we performed Mercury (by Jan van der Roost), Walking the Dog (George Gershwin) with clarinet soloist Ian House, A Ship in the Mist (Rossano Galante), Romanesque (James Swearingen) and The Thunderbirds March (Barry Gray). It was a very enjoyable playout on a lovely day, with many other great bands in attendance.

On 26 April 2025 we performed a range of Anzac themed music, including Hymn to the Fallen and Colonel Bogey, as well as other pieces appropriate to Anzac Day, such as Sleepers Awake and Hine e Hine (the beautiful Maori lullaby famous as the Goodnight Kiwi TV theme).