Duet-winning teen can double in brass
Florence McKenzie literally does blow her own trumpet and she is hitting some high notes this year.
The teenager, who won a section of the New Zealand Brass Band Championships in Hamilton recently, is one of four musicians in her family.
Florence, 15, is a trumpet and cornet player at James Hargest College in Invercargill, and a member of the Ascot Park Hotel Brass Band, the Southland Youth Jazz Band and the Invercargill City Big Band.
Her brother Jack McKenzie plays the trombone in Christchurch’s Woolston Brass Band, their mother Sarah Lovell is a cello player in the Invercargill Symphonia and grandmother Mary Lovell plays the viola in a symphonia in Christchurch.
Florence and German exchange student Gabriel Qack, 15, played cornets to win the under-19 duet section at the national brass band championships.
‘‘We had lots of practice together,’’ Florence says.
‘‘It’s quite nerve-racking playing in front of people, but you’ve got to put them out of your mind.’’
She believed performing in public had helped her confidence in other areas of her life.
Florence, on the cornet, and Jack, with his trombone, won a duet section at an Otago-Southland competition at Roxburgh earlier this year. They will combine again for a Canterbury competition in Christchurch in three weeks.
Anzac Day was busy for Florence this year because she played in the Ascot Park Hotel Brass Band at the Invercargill dawn parade before heading to the Drummond service. She has played at the Drummond service for the past two years.
Florence says she is considering pursuing a career in the New Zealand Army, which has a band that performs at major events worldwide. She is also a keen kayaker.