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).