Record entries, standards high

Otago Girls High School choir and conductor Karen Knudson perform at the Big Sing Secondary...
Otago Girls High School choir and conductor Karen Knudson perform at the Big Sing Secondary Schools Choral Festival at the Dunedin Town Hall yesterday. Photo by Jane Dawber.
Organisers of the Big Sing Secondary Schools Choral Festival are squealing with delight after record entries to the competition and extremely high performance standards at the Dunedin Town Hall yesterday.

Festival co-ordinator Carole Randall said choirs from 18 secondary schools in Otago and South Canterbury entered the event this year - many of them first-time entrants.

She was particularly pleased with the increase in the number of boys participating.

Mrs Randall said choirs across the country traditionally struggled to fill their male quota, but schools like Kings High School managed to present a choir of 55 boys this year.

"That's rare in New Zealand schools. Today has been tremendously encouraging," she said.

The choirs spent the afternoon performing in front of adjudicator Robert Wiremu, a vocal specialist at the University of Auckland and Opera New Zealand.

Each performance was recorded on DVD and will be sent with Mr Wiremu's adjudication report to Wellington.

The recording will be considered, along with recordings made at other regional competitions, for selection to perform at the National Finale in August.

One of the highlights of the afternoon session was the Otago Boys High School choir singing Tshotshozolosha, a South African folk song with traditional African dancing, which elicited a response from the audience similar to a rock concert.

At the evening Festival of Choirs concert, each school performed again, this time to the public, and combined to perform the finale, Vivaldi's Gloria in D Major.

Awards were presented to: Otago Girls High School (University of Otago College of Education Cup for best New Zealand composition); Craighead Chorale (Otago Committee Millennium Cup for best pre-1900 European composition); and Columba College and Kings High School (Isabel Chetwin Cup for most improved choir).

Kings High School and Craighead Choir received commended awards and St Hildas Collegiate School's Sings Hilda and Columba College highly commended awards.

 

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