The surprise at the end of the John Williams concert in Canary Wharf: Stormtroopers!

The Band requires sponsorship for its development programme, as well as for tours.

Thank you to all our past sponsors.

String players' motto: ``It's better to be sharp than out of tune.''

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!1997 * Rave reviews at the National Creative Arts Festival * Gauteng Tour - Performed at the International Eisteddfod, Roodepoort - won the Trophy and Gold Award for the best Symphonic Windband * Opening of the ICC * African Peace Awards * Received the Mayor's Achievers Award (Arts and Culture Section) !1998 * The completion and release of an outstanding CD * An SABC broadcast Appearances at * Hibiscus Festival - Margate * Seriously Splashy - Underberg * Last Night of the Proms - City Hall, Durban * KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra's New Year's Eve Celebration and several educational concerts at schools.

The aims of the development program are to: * make the study of a musical instrument available to talented young people from previously disadvantaged communities. Following the closure of the Music Schools in Durban and Pietermaritzburg, access to musical training for talented young people from disadvantaged communities was almost entirely closed. * make the KwaZulu-Natal Youth Wind Band representative of the youth of this province. * provide an opportunity for young people of this province to make music of a consistently high quality, while developing their musical skills and performance discipline in the context of a wind band.

Under its current conductor Werner Dannewitz, the KwaZulu-Natal Youth Wind Band has achieved its present status of excellence.

Werner Dannewitz is a professional clarinettist. He was born in Germany, and started his instruction at the age of nine under the guidance of Professor Ernst Flackus. He started his musical career with the Durban Symphony Orchestra as Principal Clarinettist. Whilst lecturing at the Conservatoire of Music in Windhoek, he formed the Windhoek Youth Wind Band.

He joined the Natal Education Department in Pietermaritzburg, and in 1977 founded the Natal Youth Wind Band, the forerunner of the KwaZulu-Natal Youth Wind Band. He conducted this band till the end of 1986.

The variety and versatility of wind instruments, notably the flute, clarinet, saxophone and trumpet, make these instruments particularly popular among aspiring young musicians. Older pupils (12 years +) can start learning a wind instrument and still make a success of it, in spite of having started with music tuition rather late in life.

The conventional symphony orchestra usually has only three players in each instrument in the wind sections. This does not provide sufficient opportunities for all pupils to play their instruments together with other young musicians, especially if they are still learning. Symphonic wind bands, like the KwaZulu-Natal Youth Wind Band, create far more opportunities for wind players to perform together in an orchestra setting.