Watch performances from this year’s Finale recitals online.
New videos are being uploaded all the time so keep checking in to see if your choir’s performance is up yet.
The Finale is only days away. It won’t be long until Dunedin Town Hall is filled with a few hundred of New Zealand best secondary school choristers.
Here’s an overview:
(for a complete list of which choirs are performing in which session, CLICK HERE)
2009 National Finale
Dunedin Town Hall 27-29 August
Thursday 27 August
Opening Ceremony – 11:00 am
Session 1 – 2:00pm
Session 2 – 4:30pm
Session 3 – 7:15pm
Friday 28 August
Session 4 – 10:30am
Session 5 – 2:00pm
Session 6 – 4:00pm
Session 7 – 7:00pm
Saturday 29 August
Session 8 – 10:30am
Gala Concert – 6:30pm– get your tickets online
Each of the sessions is open to the public, so please encourage your friends and family in Dunedin to come along and show their support!
Check out last year’s Platinum Award-Winning choir on YouTube:
According to a recent survey, music students (especially singers) are well-placed to be financially successful in life. “88 per cent of people with a post-graduate education were involved in music while in school, and 83 per cent of people earning US$150,000 ($198,390) or more had a music education. . .”
Read the full article from the New Zealand Herald . . . . . . . . . . . . . .>
Have a look at The Big Sing’s YouTube Channel to see performances from the Gala Concert of the 2008 Finale in Wellington Town Hall.
Leave us a comment, become a YouTube friend, send us a link to your choir’s performances on YouTube.
Congratulations to the 20 selected choirs, the two reserve choirs, and the two guest choirs. In all there will be 22 choirs participating in the National Finale in the Dunedin Town Hall from August 27 to 29, 2009. Here are the choirs, in no particular order.
AUCKLAND
1. Saints Alive – St Cuthbert’s College
2. St Cecilia Singers – Diocesan School for Girls
3. Voicemale – Westlake Boys’ High School
4. Choralation – Westlake Boys’ & Girls’ High Schools
5. Grammar Voices – Auckland Grammar School
6. The Fundamentals – Rangitoto College
7. Bellissimo – Whangaparaoa College
MANAWATU/WANGANUI
8. OK Chorale – Palmerston North Boys’ High School
WELLINGTON
9. Wellington College Chorale – Wellington College
10. Con Anima – St Patrick’s College, Wellington
NELSON/MARLBOROUGH
11. Bella Voce- Marlborough Girls’ College
CANTERBURY/WEST COAST
12. Resolutions – Rangi Ruru Girls’ School
13. Bel Canto – Burnside High School
14. Chapel Choir – Christ’s College
15. Schola Cantorum – Christ’s College
16. Con Brio – Villa Maria College
17. Magna Voce – Burnside High School
OTAGO/SOUTH CANTERBURY
18. Craighead Chorale – Craighead Diocesan School
19. Sings Hilda – St Hilda’s Collegiate School
20. Craighead Choir – Craighead Diocesan School
Reserve 1. Aorora Voices – Burnside High School
Reserve 2. Cantare – Westlake Girls’ High School
GUEST CHOIRS
The Tenners – Sacred Heart Girls’ College, New Plymouth
Otago Girls’ High School Choir – Otago Girls’ High School
SOUNZ/NZCF Choral Composition Award 2009
Congratulations to the winner of the NZCF/SOUNZ composition award, Grace Park of Westlake Girls High School. This year the adjudicator was David Hamilton, with the final results moderated by Richard Madden. Grace will receive a cash prize of $250, supported by SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music, and a copy of the winning score will be held by SOUNZ as a perusal copy. The NZCF Auckland Choral Composition Trophy will be held by Westlake Girls High School for a year.
One of the choirs at THE BIG SING National Finale, to be held from 27 to29 August, will be approached to perform this composition at the gala concert. Grace will also be invited to attend the Finale as a guest of the NZCF to participate in the final rehearsals of the piece, and to be presented with the award. Accommodation and airfares will be provided by the NZCF.
Well done to all students who entered the competition this year, especially those named below who were commended by the adjudicator.
Grant Hutchinson
Chief Executive
New Zealand Choral Federation
Comments from adjudicator David Hamilton
This year’s competition saw eleven entries from around the country. Significantly, most of the entries, and all the placed works, were from girls. Texts were drawn from a wide variety of sources – both sacred and secular. It was also pleasing that several works had recordings of performances sent in.
All eleven entries had considerable merit and understood writing for the voice, and in several cases another ‘working over’ of the material would result in a very successful choral composition. Each composer demonstrated an ability to effectively set a text, and to handle the choral idiom. My final choice was quite hard, as several works stood out for different reasons, and the top two works were both fine pieces in very different styles.
The winning work, Grace Park’s “Benedicat tibi Dominus”, is marked by an exciting rhythmic setting in Latin of a familiar biblical text (“The Lord bless you and keep you…”). The composer has a fine ear for interesting harmonies, and the SATB texture is varied and well supported by its piano accompaniment. Grace is a student at Westlake Girls High School where she is very involved in music activities. She is no stranger to competition success, having taken first place in the 2008 student composition competition organised by Auckland’s V8 Vocal Ensemble.
I gave a second place to Bryony Gibson-Cornish for her evocative and atmospheric piece “South Brighton Love Song”. I was keen to acknowledge that this work stood out from the other commended pieces for its sensitive and imaginative writing.
The full list of results is:
First place
Grace Park (Westlake Girls High School): “Benedicat tibi Dominus”
Second place
Bryony Gibson-Cornish (Rangi Ruru Girls School): “South Brighton Love Song”
Highly commended
Annalise Higgins (Corran School): “A Little Christmas Magic”
Gemma Lee (Westlake Girls High School): “Te Deum”
Commended
Tiffany Wood (Corran School): “Amazing”
Entries were also received from: Brooke Abbott (Rangi Ruru Girls School), Reuben Chin (Cashmere High School) Jemma Hartley (Queen Margaret College), Penelope Lake (Queen Margaret College), Rebecca Lee (Queen Margaret College), Jesse Sheehan (Wellington College).
From Grant Hutchinson (CEO, NZCF)
The outbreak of swine flu has forced choral singers from Westlake Girls’ and Papatoetoe High Schools to be quarantined for several days. This has meant that, collectively, five school choirs cannot compete this week in the northern regional festival of THE BIG SING, being held in the Auckland Town Hall, even though one of them has been a frequent Gold Award winner at the national Finale.
The NZCF has arranged for the choirs to be assessed alone, early next week when the quarantine has been lifted. To ensure fairness in the judging process, the five affected choirs will perform their chosen works in the same venue. Managers THE EDGE have generously made the Town Hall available for this audition on Monday 22 June, at no charge.
For this reason the announcement regarding selection of choirs for the Finale will be delayed until the adjudicators have conferred – predicted to be a few days after the assessment on the 22nd June.
WATCH THIS SPACE FOR MORE UPDATES
Grant Hutchinson (CEO, NZCF)
Looks as if Choralation (Gold Award-winning choir, Wellington Finale 2008) may not be able to attend the Auckland Regionals this week because swine flu at Westlake Girls High School. Read more . . . >
It’s time for 50 choirs from around Auckland to decend on the Town Hall for 3 days of Big Singing.
The regionals are nearing their end with only Nelson/ Marlborough and Southland Regions remaining.
