1939
Born 26 January in Auckland, New Zealand. Aquarian - Tiger in the Chinese horoscope.

1950
Aged 11, Gary contracts Polio. He is unable to play any form of sport or do any physical education.

Turns to music, learns the piano for 1 year and hates it.

1953
While attending Takapuna Grammar School and unable to engage in any form of physical education or sport, Gary joins the school brass band, which practiced during school hours, playing the Euphonium. He also played in the Takapuna and Devonport Silver Bands.

1954 - 1957
He learns the clarinet, joins the school orchestra, which also practices during school hours. Fails School Certificate the following year because of lack of classroom time, but achieves it next time round.

Not being able to play both successfully a brass and woodwind instrument together, as he was told by his tutors, he stayed in the brass band and pipe bands, playing side drum and mallet percussion. The bands performed regularly at outdoor, weekend concerts in the parks and for the marching girls teams.

He also played clarinet in the local amateur theatre and orphans orchestras.

When only 16 years of age, he performed the solo in Mozart Clarinet Concerto, with the Auckland Secondary Schools Orchestra, in the Auckland Town Hall.

Gary formed his first band, The Taka Tones, while still at Grammar School, playing for all the school dances.

In his last year at school, he joined the Auckland Junior Symphony Orchestra, now the Auckland Youth Orchestra, as a clarinetist.

Gary had now learned to play the saxophone, both tenor and alto, and when he left school he played at weddings and local church dances in a trio.

1959 -1966
Auditioned successfully for, Red Hewitt and the Buccaneers. This was to be the start of his real musical career. They cut several hit records for the Zodiac and Audion record labels and often toured the country in Showtime Spectacular, with the Howard Morrison Quartet. It was during this time that Gary realized that the saxophone was going out of favour and that cling, cling, piano, Jerry Lee Lewis style, was in. "I knew the notes on the piano, so I needed to get some playing technique. I was 21, still living at home and practiced the Hannon Five Finger Exercises daily for 5 hours, up and down the keyboard, driving my mother mad." He later took Jazz piano lessons from top jazz pianists of the day.

The Buccaneers disbanded in 1962 when Red Hewitt, with a couple of the members, went to Australia to try their luck. Gary auditioned successfully for the, Ronny Sundin Band, which was to become the successful, Embers Show Band.

It was back in the early days while recording with Zodiac Records, that owner, Eldred Stebbing and Gary discovered that they were actually cousins. So under the Zodiac umbrella Gary formed the Viscount Record Label and this was the start to his successful, record producing years. Viscount Records still operates today, producing mainly New Zealand music and talent.

In the early 1960's, before Gary went overseas in 1966, to the UK, he had produced hit records for: The Gremlins, Cathy Howe, the Sierras, the Glendelles, along with recording, the Bridge City Jazzmen, the Embers, the Fair Sect, the Graeme Bartlett Combo and Mr. Lee Grant's very first single. He also influenced many of the records that came out on the Zodiac label. Gary has often said, "Ray Columbus never knew the input I had to his hit, She's a Mod."

The first half of the 1960's, the Shiralee Night Club in Downtown, Auckland, was at the heart of the vibrant, teen-driven music scene in Auckland. When Eldred Stebbing bought the Shiralee, he changed the name to The Galaxie and put his 'Cuzzy Bro' (Gary) in to manage it.

Eldred and Gary remained close friends and worked and produced records together right up until Eldred's death in 2009.

In 1966, Gary travelled to the UK, his brother joining him soon after.
Gary was a qualified Secondary school teacher in Commerce and taught at a comprehensive boys school for the whole four years he was in London.

• He formed a trio with his drummer/vocalist brother and a local bass guitarist, playing three nights a week for nearly 2 years at the same pub, 30 meters from their flat. Some of the best 'pub music' in North London they were told.
• While in London, Gary recorded brother Wayne, at the Abbey Road Studios, with the Johnny Arthey Orchestra and the Lady Birds backing vocal group.
  As they were already inside the locked out studio, they were able to listen in (for a short time) to a Shadows and a Beatles recording session.
• Gary achieved both his LRSM and LTCL in clarinet performance. While in London, he received a Trinity College Fellowship, in composition.

1972
Gary travelled for a 6-month's overland drive from London to Nepal. (That's another story, but he did study some Nepalese Temple music). Gary returned to Auckland and taught Commerce.

• Gary offers TVNZ his arranging skills. "Don't phone us, we'll phone you".
  And they did.
• Spent many years as one of the top TV arrangers, under the guidance of Bernie Allen,
  for the shows like: Happen Inn, Smile, Sing, Once More With Feeling, Stars On Sunday, Max Cryer and his Children's Choir.

1973 The Rock Musical, Man of Sorrows, changed Gary's musical career forever.

Appointed music director and arranger for the Rock Musical, Man of Sorrows, one of NZ's most successful musicals, that launched the musical careers of many young talent including: Rob Guest, Max Cryer, Vaughan Lawrence, Lew Pryme and his brother, Wayne.

Man of Sorrows was his first real, professional, conducting gig and in Auckland's top theatre at the time, His Majesty's Theatre and his first introduction to the world of musical theatre. Man of Sorrows broke all box office records for the time.

In the year following Man of Sorrows, he composed his own rock musical, the first of a few. Hi Ya Messiah (1974), created to a libretto by American, Ed Justin, of Screen Gems notoriety. Soon after Hi Ya Messiah, he composed and directed the music to Peter, a modern rock version of Ibsen's Peer Gynt story.
Robyn Hood: Outlaw Princess, (libretto by John Reynolds), a female rock version of the tales of Robin Hood and her Merry Women in Sherwood Forest, emerged a few years later.

• Musical Director for many local amateur operatic societies conducting: West Side Story (1974), Hello Dolly, Viva Mexico (1977), Annie Get Your Gun (1978), Die Fledermaus, (The Bat) (1979), Cormac O'Duffy's cantata, Hear O Israel (1998), An evening with Gilbert and Sullivan (1999/2001)) and Hiawatha's Wedding by Coleridge-Taylor (2005).

1974 Waitangi Day Celebrations.
Appointed Music Director/arranger. Possibly the only civilian in history who has conducted a Royal Navy Band, at a State, Royal occasion, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II with her immediate Royal family and he was not an appointed commissioned officer of the military.

1975
Gary forms the Auckland Symphony Orchestra (ASO). Remains Music Director/conductor for 35 years. Retires in 2010 and accepts the title: Music Director Emeritus.

1975 was the start of an illustrious career as an international conductor, conducting orchestras in 20 different countries, mainly in Europe and Asia and also local community orchestras in NZ.

Conductor of ASO concerts initially in St Mary’s Cathedral, Parnell, Auckland and then all main concerts were held in the Auckland Town Hall, the Aotea Centre (now the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre) and the Bruce Mason Centre.

Many school concerts at schools, called "What’s in an Orchestra?" and 'out of town' concerts, where a symphony orchestra would not normally go.
With the Auckland Choral Society:
A Night at the Opera
A Night on Broadway
A Night at the Movies
Outdoor Concert - Stars under the Stars, (2007) at Matakana, with Dame Malvina Major.

The ASO toured Fiji in 1980 and Mainland China (Beijing, Shanghai and Shi Jia Zhuang) in 2007.

• The real highlight of the Shanghai concert was that Channel 9 Television, recorded the concert using six cameras, for a one-hour prime time viewing, broadcast one week later on Sunday evening to an estimated viewing audience of one hundred and forty-three million people.

1977
Bought into Mandrill Recording Studios as a shareholder and company director.

• Started a career of writing, producing and recording in excess of 500 TV and radio jingles.
• Re-established his Viscount Record label and continued his career as a record producer, recording albums for: Billy T. James, Maori Hi Marks, Noel Parlane, Tom Sharplin, Patsy Riggir, Kylie Harris, to name a few, along with many of his own compositions.

1978
Took up a one-year position with NZ Education Department as - Composer in Schools.
Working in four Auckland schools.

1979
Composer in Schools position extended for another 12 months. Resigned from his HOD Commerce position at Glendowie College Auckland.

• His work at TVNZ had enabled him to combine his talents for arranging and orchestrating pop music and, in many cases, conducting the television studio orchestra.
• Wrote many children’s musicals during these two years, all proving a great success.
• The fine wordsmiths are acknowledged in brackets.  The musicals included: Cats of Ponsonby (Rae Prowse), Gypsy Girl (Ruth Hamilton), Robyn Hood: Warrior Princess (John Reynolds), Tales of Panapa (Mountain Fairies and The Floating Island) (Rosemary Cranswick and Phil Mark), The Brothers Three and Young Mozart (Rosemary Cranswick and Janet Grierson) and Tiddalik the Frog (Cheryl McDonnell).
• All these musicals are available on CD, some on DVD.
• These musicals, forty-five years later are still being performed.
• There were many other short musicals he composed in conjunction with his students, performed successfully at the time in their schools but then forgotten about.
• He also wrote many ‘stand alone’ songs for the children to sing and they were published in a book called, How About Singing. Many of his songs were used in an educational publication called, Music Kit and are still being sung in schools today.


• President of the Composers Association of New Zealand (CANZ)

1983
Introduced to the world of accordions that became a major influence in Gary’s life in so many ways.

• Became music arranger for the Air New Zealand Accordion Orchestra, at the recommendation of TVNZ.

1986
Toured Europe with the Air New Zealand Accordion Orchestra for the first time, with many more world tours in the years to follow, as an arranger, composer and guest conductor.
This was the start of a life long association with accordions worldwide, especially as a composer and conductor.

Gary is New Zealand's most prolific writer of music for the accordion.

1988
Gary produced the first recording of his orchestral music with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Kenneth Young conducting.

• German radio broadcast recording session in Stuttgart, Germany, of his, Rhapsody for Accordion and Orchestra.
• At the 1990 Coupe Mondiale in Trossingen, Germany, he conducted Rhapsody for Accordion and Orchestra with the Orchester des Harmonika-Spielring-Boeblingen, a very fine accordion orchestra that he was to conduct on many more occasions in the years to follow.

1993
Conducted the premier of Pocket Overture, at London’s Royal Festival Hall.

• Later that year, this work was awarded first prize in the American A.T.G. (Accordion Teachers Guild International) 31st annual competition for original composition.

1994
Conducting his first overseas professional symphony orchestra was with the Turkish State Orchestra of Adana and a performance of his: Rhapsody for Accordion and Orchestra. The Turkish State Orchestras of Bursa and Istanbul were to follow.

• Conducted London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) at Orchestrell '95.
• Conducted the, Yukiwariso Choir of Japan with the ASO and Auckland Choral Society, the Music of Beethoven, including the Choral Symphony, at the Aotea Centre.

• Jakarta, Indonesia.
• The National Symphony Orchestra of Malaysia.
• Taiwan Symphony Orchestra.

1998
Conducted and arranged the music for, Jazz with Strings Attached, a programme of ‘classic’ jazz standards with Dave Paquette (piano trio) and the Auckland Symphony Orchestra strings, a successful annual event for the next three years at the Bruce Mason Centre.

1999
Guest conducted the Royal Symphonic Band of the Belgian Guides in Brussells.

2000
The privilege and pleasure on several occasions of being the guest conductor at the Texas Accordion Association’s Convention in Dallas, Texas.

2001
Guest conductor again for the Texas Accordion Association National Accordion Convention in Plano, Texas.

• Conducted the Premier of Gem of the Kaipara with the ASO, written for solo accordion with string orchestra and percussion. Recorded a few years later with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra - Czech Republic.
• South Korea conducting the Incheon City Symphony Orchestra.
• Invited to be the music director for a week long International Mandolin Convention held in Hamilton, New Zealand.
• Conducted the Bursa State Turkish Symphony Orchestra, world premier of: "Gelybolu" (Gallipoli), Rhapsody for Trumpet and Orchestra, reflecting the composer’s ANZAC feelings and in the memory of the war that took place between Turkey and New Zealand. This was a commission for the solo trumpeter: Erden Bilgen.

2003
Appointed guest conductor for two weeks at a music school in Mirandela, some three hours north east of Oporto in Portugal.
This was a school with a difference, where the students from the age of thirteen, were paid a salary to come to school, funded by the EEC (European Economic Community).

2004
Gary conducted the Istanbul State Turkish Symphony orchestra performs, "Gelybolu" (Gallipoli), Rhapsody for Trumpet and Orchestra.

• Invited to Slovenia as a guest conductor/tutor at an accordion summer music school.
• Conducted a programme (one of a few) of music from Stage and Screen, with the Moravian Philharmonic, Czech Republic, the orchestra that recorded most of Gary's orchestral music.

2011
President of the International Jury for the famous, international accordion contest,
 Primus Ikaalinen held in Finland.

2012-2014
Co-produced and directed 3 children’s musicals including, Cats of Ponsonby, for the Glen Eden Playhouse Theatre.

2016
Vice President of the Glen Eden Playhouse Theatre Trust for 6 years.

Recipient of the prestigious Benny Award presented by the Variety Artists Club of New Zealand (VAC).

YouTube video release conducting the Auckland Symphony Orchestra in concert: Pirates of the Caribbean, over 97 million views as at March 2024 and still climbing.

When asked what were his most memorable achievements Gary replied, "Watching the young students he has mentored over the years and seen them mature and achieve their musical dreams, at the highest level in the professional musical world. To name a few: Amalia Hall, Jaxine Chen, Jason Bae, Poulima Salima, Grayson Masefield and most recently, Shan Liu".
Also his 2012 video recorded version of Pirates of the Caribbean, with the Auckland Symphony Orchestra in concert.

Gary Daverne - Vinyl LP Discography (21)

Then came the CD’s

Gold award competitors in the 2020 International Video Competition
performing the accordion music of Gary Daverne.

2 Plus 1 - The Pedagogical Ensemble at the College of Culture, Irkutsk, Russia,
Song of the Far North - Martin Sulc, from Trebon - Czech Republic.
Tango 130 - Vladimir Stupnikov from St. Petersburg, Russia.
Novelette - the AC-Duo, from Irkutsk, Russia.
Introduction and Toccata - Sergey Danilkevich, Ivanovo, Republic of Belarus, Russia.