THE BIG SING 2010 National Finale Choirs
Congratulations to all participants in this year’s THE BIG SING, and especially to those going through to the Finale, to be held in Auckland from 9 to 11 August. This year eighteen choirs will be competing, with the four guest choirs receiving workshops from John Rosser and Robert Wiremu.
*Schools are listed by region in alphabetical order of school:
AUCKLAND
St Cecilia Singers, Diocesan School for Girls
Euphony, Kristin School
Macleans College Choir, Macleans College
SOS, Rangitoto College, Auckland
Saints Alive, St Cuthbert’s College
Choralation, Westlake Boy’ & Girls’ High Schools
Voicemale, Westlake Boys’ High School
MANAWATU/WANGANUI
OK Chorale, Palmerston North Boys’ High School
WELLINGTON
Cantala, Wellington East Girls’ College
Teal Voices, Wellington Girls’ College
NELSON/MARLBOROUGH
Bella Voce, Marlborough Girls’ College
CANTERBURY/WEST COAST
Bel Canto, Burnside High School
Cantabile, Burnside High School
Cantrices, Christchurch Girls’ High School
Resolutions, Rangi Ruru Girls’ School
OTAGO/SOUTH CANTERBURY
Craighead Chorale, Craighead Diocesan School
Southern Hesperides, Otago Girls’ High School
SOUTHLAND
Femme, Southland Girls’ High School, Invercargill
RESERVE FINALE CHOIR
Con Anima, St Patrick’s College, Wellington
GUEST CHOIRS
1. Angels Awaken, Aquinas College, Waikato/Bay of Plenty
2. Voix de Femmes, Havelock North High School, East Coast
3. Riccarton Singers, Riccarton High School, Canterbury/West Coast
4. Lyrical Ladies, Feilding High School, Manawatu/Wanganui
SOUNZ COMPOSITION COMPETITION
Twelve compositions were submitted for the 2010 SOUNZ NZCF Choral Composition Awards. Styles ranged from traditional through to contemporary genres. All twelve showed effective choral writing skills and were beautifully presented. That eight have been awarded commendations covering first, second, third, very highly, highly and commended shows the calibre of this year’s compositions. I thank the students for submitting these works.
Adjudicator, Dorothy Buchanan
AWARDS
First Place
Awhina Waimotu, Aorere College, with “Te Atua”
Second Place
Salina Fisher, Burnside High School, with “Fallen”
Third Place
Crystal Choi, Westlake Girls’ High School, with “Requiescat”
Very Highly Commended
Alex Fafeita, Wairarapa College, with “Vita Per Sempre”
Marcus Jackson, Lindisfarne College, with “Whisper”
Highly Commended
Benjamin Tan, Westlake Boys’ High School, with “Where is the Sun”
Anna Rachael MacBride, St Matthew’s Collegiate School, with “Col Not in War”
Commended
Cecilia Xu, Epsom Girls’ Grammar, with “Last Word”
Hi Maia. The competition started in 1988 as a development of the vocal section of the Westpac Schools’ Chamber Music Contest.
Find out more at the About TBS page.
Hi I was wondering if anybody knows when the Big Sing competitions actually first started? Like what year they started? If you know could you please email me at : maiatutauha@yahoo.co.nz
Thanks
The four Guest Choirs are now confirmed with Lyrical Ladies, Feilding High School, taking the final spot.
Nga Mokopuna, Te Kura Kaupapa Maori O Nga Mokopuna, Wellington, and Ancora, James Hargest College, Southland, were also invited as Guest Choirs but were sadly unable to accept the invitation.
The 18 choirs for the final have been finalised and nearly all guest choir spots have been confirmed.
Don’t miss your chance to a part of the Finale experience. Attend the recitals and order your Gala Concert tickets . . . info at the http://www.nzcf.org
CANTALA PWNS!!!
im so proud of us cantala! and mr. stewart! oh happy happy days.
and a big congratulations to all of you other choirs who have got through!
We are still awaiting some acceptances, but can announce that Dio is entering only one choir, St Cecilia Singers, and therefore first reserve, Rangitoto College’s SOS, is a competing choir.
Changes have been made to the list above.
Congrats SOS for getting into finale!!
Congrats to Cantabile and Bel Canto from Burnside.
You guys will do so well.
Shock horror tho. Where is Chilton St James
Probably because the dark-horse Cantala from wellington east girls’ college. they’re lucky to have that guy as their conductor whatever his name is
Yes, yes we are
It’s a shame that there are only 2 male voice choirs this year, and one mixed choir. 15 girls choirs are obviously nice to listen to, but surely more variety would be better? Give the guys a chance to sing! Why is the balance so lopsided this year?
Hey Luke,
I thought the same but it would seem that the standard of the female choirs was significantly higher than the male choirs this year. Well done to all the choirs though, it’s going to be a great finale.
Thankfully they choose the best choirs for the competition instead of trying to get a ‘fair’ balance. Otherwise you end up penalizing the girl choirs just because there’s lots of good ones. Boys just need to ‘up’ there game!
Thanks Elizabeth for your explaination. Just one more thing – Do the guest choirs get to go to Nationals but the reserves don’t? Thanks again!
Thanks, Tony. Here’s how the reserve thing works. There are two reserves for the competing choirs and two reserves for the guest choirs. So if a choir from either group lets us know it can’t accept the invitation, we’ll invite the first reserve for that group to attend in its place.
OMG gooooooooo Senior Choir and St Cecilia Singers!!!!!!!
proud of u guys
YEY VOICEMALE, CHOROLATION, and SOS!!!! Belissimo I wanted to see you guys again!!!!
all goods. GOOD JOB CHOIRS!!! 
Yea definitely wanted to see Belissimo again bit of a shame about that
Can I ask…Why are there only 18 choirs competing this year – aren’t there usually 20? And what happens to the reserves?
Hi Tony,
The number of choirs does fluctuate from year to year — depending partly on the standard. In recent years we’ve had between 18 and 20, and this year we’ve expanded the guest choir numbers so more choirs who haven’t yet reached the standard, but look as though they might, can participate in the Finale for the experience and training.
There will be 18 competing and 4 guest choirs – and the guest choirs will attend clinics with two top conductors. The reserves are chosen in case some of the main list choirs are unable to come. We’ll let them know as soon as we know which choirs are accepting the invitation.
Thanks for asking…
— Elizabeth
Congrats Saints Alive!!
Congratulations Cantala! I’m so proud of you!
Cantala are AMAZING, indeed.
This is a good day
It is indeed
Yay compo comp! Shot Aphi, Salina and Ben!
OHMYGOSH!!!!! GO SOUTHERN HESPERIDES!!!!!!