The 50th Otago Secondary Schools Music Festival

The Otago Secondary Schools Music Festival is an annual concert celebration of communal music making and achievement for secondary school students of Otago. The upcoming 2019 show will be the Festivals 50th annual concert. This certainly makes it an event worthy of celebration.

The Festival Concert attracts some 600 students from up to 20 schools from the Otago area. School groups come from as far as Oamaru, Balclutha, the Catlins, Alexandra and Cromwell. That means that over the 50 years of the festival’s existence, thousands of musicians from Dunedin and environs have performed. For many, the experience will have been a highly significant step in their lives as musicians, as they get to demonstrate their skills to a large appreciative audience in Dunedin’s iconic Town Hall.

The inaugural SSMF occurred in 1970. Then District Music Advisor Roger Buckton was instrumental in establishing the event, and long-time local music teacher Aart Brusse has been the key individual in maintaining the event’s momentum over much of its life.

As always, the show features a massed choir, orchestra, concert band, string orchestra and jazz band, each combining the talents of each individual school. It also includes several spots for individual school groups to display their talents. A feature of the concerts is that we showcase a variety of individual groups who have achieved success in that year.

Komene Cassidy will deliver a mihi whakatau, with the support of the Kings and Queens High Schools’ kapa haka group ‘He Waka Kotuia’

Highlights this year will include

A musical welcome from the John McGlashan Pipe Band
The massed choir performing Faure’s wonderful Libera Me
The massed orchestra performance of an arrangement of the first movement of Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony and a medley of Beatles tunes
The chamber music regional winners ‘Unsung Heroes’.
The massed jazz band playing a stunning version of Chick Corea’s Spain.
Logan Park’s Big Bad Big Band funking it up on Tower of Power’s Soul Vaccination.
Plus much more!

Another regular feature is an award, 'the Trustpower Tertiary Music Scholarship', given to an ex-participant of the festival who is continuing their music studies at a tertiary level. The recipient of this years' award (still to be decided) will perform as part of the programme.

The event represents the culmination of months of work by Dunedin’s secondary schools music teachers and the instrumental teachers who support their learning.

We welcome all members of the public to join us for this celebration. Because of Dunedin Venues financial support we are able to offer this concert for free admission. We would also like to acknowledge Trustpower for their generous contributions to this very worthy musical endeavour.

The Otago Secondary Schools Music Festival will take place this year on Tuesday 13 August, 6.30pm, at the Dunedin Town Hall.

See you there!