10 day Itinerary for 2012 Singdownunder Festival Visit

Day 1 Monday June 25th Afternoon arrival from South Australia

Day 2 Tuesday Touring “volcanic’ Auckland Singing with Auckland girls school Visit Auckland’s Skytower

Day 3 Wednesday After a breakfast in the hotel transfer to Aorere College for Maori Choral Workshop.   Program includes

• Maori welcome, Powhiri with speech and song from hosts and guests
• learning a Maori choreographed action song taught in sections by sections of the host choir, Sweet Sixteen
• welcome to the Maori Department of the school
• sharing a Maori “Hangi” lunch with the school’s Kapa Haka (Maori Cultural) group in the Maori dapartment.
• participation in the Aorere College unique “singing assembly” under choral director Douglas Nyce including coperformance of Maori song with host choir
• learning the long and/or short poi under instruction.  (See the ladies of the Patea Maori Club)

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SingDownunder and the Christchurch Earthquake

At 1pm (NZT) on Tuesday February 22nd Christchurch city centre was partially destroyed by a shallow earthquake almost directly underneath it.  There is substantial loss of life and many major and historic buildings in the centre of town are partly or wholly destroyed.  The destruction includes two of the beautiful choral venues, the Anglican Cathedral in Cathedral Square  and the Catholic Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament that we sang in last year.

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Lessons from the Inaugural SingDownunder Festival, 2010.

SingDownunder gives opportunities for international choirs to tour New Zealand. It particularly gives them four opportunities in New Zealand, none of which might be available otherwise.

1. It negotiates for visiting choirs to outreach with Maori and Polynesian choirs which are uniquely available in New Zealand, particularly Auckland.

2. It provides a competition/workshops/massed choirs/concert opportunity in Auckland’s best venue and with best resources (eg sound engineer, adjudicators).

3. It draws the choirs of metropolitan Auckland together at the competition and gives the visiting choirs the chance to see some of New Zealand’s best young choirs.

4. It creates a shared and partly shared touring itinerary in which international choirs visit New Zealand’s most famous scenic areas and sing with choirs and music groups in often beautiful small venues.

SingDownunder is also a means of achieving more international exposure for New Zealand choirs, particularly those not likely to be able to tour internationally and some who might not even get to sing in New Zealand’s main centres.

These ideas were supported by the inaugural event. All of the elements of the festival seemed to make up a diverse interesting appropriate experience for the Australian group. The NZ Choirs that participated, either in Auckland or in the hinterland, seemed to love the chance that the visitors brought.

The Australians included 10 choristers who were 19-21, ie older than any NZ school chorister, but there was no problem with this. The experience suggested that American junior college choirs can participate appropriately, for instance.

The feedback from the New Zealand choirs and correspondence from overseas suggests SingDownunder will have more choirs next year.

Feedback from our Musical Director, David Hamilton

David Hamilton

SingDownunder Festival

The words of one of my own students said it all: “Yesterday was awesome and fun and I can’t wait until next year for it again.” SingDownunder launched successfully at the end of July with 11 Auckland choirs performing and competing alongside the Youth Chorale of the National Children’s Choir and Youth Chorale of Australia. Covering a wide range of music, the competitive aspect of the event allowed choirs to show off their best singing. Choirs from south Auckland such as Multichoral (Mangere College) and Front Row Choir (Aorere College) brought with them pieces from the Maori and Polynesian tradition which were received enthusiastically by the assembled audience. Other choirs stuck more closely to traditional choral repertoire, with many including pieces by New Zealand composers. Read more

National Children’s Choir of Australia 2010 itinerary

The NCCA came to New Zealand late on July 28th and was hosted in Auckland by the Choralation choir of Westlake Boys and Girls High Schools led by Rowan Johnstone.  Their busy schedule was as follows:

July 29th Full day Maori Choral Workshop with Hangi meal hosted by Aorere College’s “Sweet Sixteen” Choir led by Douglas Nyce.

July 30th and 31st Two day choral competition, workshops, massed choir rehearsals and recordings.

August 1 Flew to Queenstown

6pm Recital in St Peters Church, Queenstown with the Central Otago Regional Choir directed by John Buchanan

August 2nd Recital in the Mercure Hotel.

August 3rd Daytime skiing in the Cadrona Valley

August 4th lunchtime Concert at Geraldine Primary School with the Colla Voce Choir conducted by Shirley Lindroos from Geraldine High School

7pm concert in St John’s Church with the Mt Hutt College Choir directed by Thirza Currie and the Crescendo Light Orchestra conducted by Lyn Blackwell at St Johns Church Methven.

August 5th 7pm concert in the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Barbadoes St, Christchurch with the choir and orchestra of Christchurch Boys High School and the Cathedral Choir all led by Don Whelan.  This cathedral, a wonderful place for a choir to sing, was not broken in the subsequent earthquake but was cracked badly enough to be out of commission in the interim.

August 6th On the plane back to Melbourne

Holy Trinity Cathedral on a winter’s morning

World Choral Tour – Introduction

Our 2010 Festival Plan

July 25th to August 6th, North and South Islands

7 nights in Auckland- (homestay and workshop in-school with Auckland choirs)  Arrival, 3 days in-school, 1 day ‘voices-on‘Maori music introduction, 2 days competition/concert, fly to South Island, overnight in Queenstown hotel.

3 nights in Queenstown (hotel)  Arrival, Winter playground, some snow, bungy, luge, jetboat etc options, evening concert. Read more

The Australian Choirs are Coming

Our choral festival was primarily designed for northern hemisphere school choirs who are on holiday at the time. But we have had correspondence from Aussies which is very welcome; they are very good and they are our neighbours after all. Have a look at Marryatville High School (http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=X1BvSy2N4pg ) singing “Elijah Rock”  as an example.

Australian choirs are in school-term time.  We want to maximize the chances for them to mix with the Auckland and international school choirs and offer them opportunity to participate as they choose, in the competition day, the Maori Choral music day or the whole package

Hello from the Festival Music Director

Hello and welcome to the NZ Schools Choral Festival

My name is David Hamilton and I’m the festival music director. You can find out all about me at my own website: www.dbhmusic.co.nz

We’re hoping for plenty of interest from international choirs, and also from New Zealand choirs in this exciting new event. The festival is intended to be a mix of adjudication, workshops and combined singing. We’ve lined up highly regarded adjudicators from New Zealand and Australia. For overseas visitors the festival is also a chance to be hosted by schools in Auckland, and to see some of the wonderful country that is New Zealand.

Come and join us for the inaugural festival in 2009. This will become, we’re sure, an exciting annual musical event for New Zealand’s already strong choral scene.

David Hamilton