Performance con brio
11 Jun 2019
Hundreds of young singers from schools across Canterbury and the West Coast had their turn in the spotlight last week, taking part in the regional Big Sing festival at the Christchurch Town Hall – among them College’s Chapel Choir, Schola Cantorum and the College–St Margaret’s College combined choir Collegium.
Year 13 student and Head of Choir Matthew Todd says it was a truly memorable experience.“It was incredible performing in the Town Hall, just incredible, as it has such amazing acoustics. It was really good to be able to perform there, my first Big Sing in the Town Hall and my last Big Sing for College. For me and my fellow Year 13s who’ve been with the choir all the way through, it was really special.”
It was a long day – the competition starting in the morning and the gala performance ended late in the evening – but well worth it. “All three choirs gave it their best effort. We’d been working towards it for quite a while and once we’d memorised the words, we could really begin to focus on some of the more musical aspects of the chosen pieces. All the boys were really committed and gave it their all, which was really good.”
The Chapel Choir – the only school to use the organ at the Town Hall to accompany their performance, thanks to the skills of music tutor Nick Sutcliffe – were awarded Best Performance of a Classical Work for their interpretation of “Dies Irae” from the Requiem, and Schola Cantorum won the award for Best Male Choir.
The Big Sing is New Zealand’s largest choral event and a highlight of the secondary school music calendar. The Canterbury Big Sing festival 2019 was held in the Town Hall on Friday 7 June.
