All the hours of practice have reaped its rewards for Harden lad Steven White, who won the Australian Best Up & Coming Drummer title at Australia’s Ultimate Drummers’ Weekend in Melbourne on the 30th and 31st of May. “It’s awesome,” said Steven. “All the hard work has paid off.” As a result, Steven won $3,000 to be spent on sponsors’ products, and has gained endorsements from DW drums, Meinl cymbals, Evans drumheads, and Promark drumsticks. Steven will also get a write up in Drumscene Magazine, and will get to perform at the 2016 Ultimate Drummers Weekend. But the victory didn’t come without a lot of effort. He had to record himself to DVDS performing 4 works in four different categories, and submit the DVD for consideration. Steven’s entry was picked, along with two others, to perform in front of a selected panel of Australian and international judges at the Ultimate Drummers’ Weekend in Melbourne. “My finalist performance consisted of a sight written snare drum piece, a sight written drum set-piece, as well as an improvised open solo,” said Steven. “It was a lot of preparation. A lot of material.” “I will now try to keep playing as much as possible and working as hard as possible,” he added.