Instrumental and choral

KBB FESTIVAL

This year Dio orchestras and bands have once again been on a wonderful journey with exciting and challenging repertoires. Back in August we took home a total of five awards at this highly prestigious competition, which is the largest youth music festival for

GOLD AWARD

Symphony Orchestra (director Shelagh Thomson)

CMNZ NATIONAL FINALS

Once again, three of our top Dio musicians competed in the national finals of the NZCT chamber music contest, along with 12 finalists chosen from some 500 groups around the country. Ronesma Trio (Year 13 Sharon Hung cello, Year 12 Emma Qiu piano and Year 11 Esther Oh violin) were Auckland regional winners, giving a stunning performance of Swingshift by Kenji Bunch, which secured them the June Clifford Silver Award,

presented by Sir James Wallace.

This is now the fifth national final at which Diocesan musicians have been represented. All these winning groups are coached by Performing Arts Director Shelagh Thomson and it is without a doubt a great honour for these young musicians to be performing with the very best of New Zealand’s instrumentalists and to be representing Dio.

instrumentalists in Australasia; the event runs over five days, with more than 4,000 students from 50 schools. This year we had the largest cohort ever involved in the festival - 150 Dio girls participating in five categories.

We were thrilled and honoured to be the only all-girls school (with the only female conductor) in the region to be represented in the Gala command performances at the Holy Trinity Cathedral. The event was buzzing with excitement as the best of Auckland school students performed their hearts out.

We went on to receive five awards: one gold, two silvers, a bronze and a Commended. We are particularly proud of the new junior groups who entered the competition for the first time.

SILVER AWARD

Chamber Orchestra (director Shelagh Thomson)

SILVER AWARD

Concert Band (director Andrew Uren)

BRONZE AWARD

JHS Concert Band (director Jill Christoff) COMMENDED AWARD

ConcorDio Strings (director Loata Mahe)

DIO HOSTS NZCBA FESTIVAL 2019

Diocesan had the privilege of hosting this year’s New Zealand Concert Band Association National Festival 2019 from Friday 2 – Sunday 4 August. Thirty-two bands and 1,300 participants from around the country attended the weekend festivities, utilising our fabulous Performing Arts Centre facilities and transforming the Sports Centre into a performance venue.

In addition to our Junior High School Concert Band and Senior Concert Band opening and closing the proceedings (respectively), this festival offered our Arts Council students a unique opportunity to learn more about event management from a host perspective, with two of our Year 12 students, Grace David and Sabreen Islam, playing integral roles within the festival itself.

The festival buzz was clearly visible throughout the weekend thanks to Dio Arts assisting with food trucks, beverages and the festival registration.

The JHS Concert Band was awarded bronze and the Senior Concert Band a silver.

GOLD AWARD & KIDS SING Best Performance of the Test Piece

Virtuoso Voce, our all-comers Years 7 and 8 choir, under the directorship of Rachel Sutherland, performed magnificently at the Auckland Town Hall in August. They were once again presented with a gold award and ‘Best Performance of the Test Piece’. This is a wonderful accolade for the girls and our choral programme, which continues to produce some of the best choirs in the country, coached by our talented and experienced staff.

Virtuoso Voce

CADENZA AND BIG SING FINALES

Our three senior choirs, along with 10,000 singers and 265 choirs from across the country, competed at regional level this year, gaining some top awards. The selection process took 900 students and 24 choirs to the National Finale and for the first year, the next 24 were selected for the Cadenza Finale, the second tier of the Big Sing National Finale. Our all-comers Years 9 and 10 choir Bella Cantoris, directed by Lachlan Craig, travelled to Rotorua and, as the youngest choir to compete, were thrilled to come home with a merit award. At the end of August, our St Cecilia Singers, directed by Rachel Sutherland with assistant Lachlan Craig, spent four days in Dunedin at the Big Sing Finale. This is the seventh consecutive year of selection and they brought home a silver award. The judges commented that the top choirs had impressed with their choice of repertoire and their technical skill, emphasising that New Zealand school choirs rate amongst the best in the world.

St Cecilia Singers

LEWIS EADYJUNIOR MUSIC COMPETITION

At the end of last term Dio entered three groups, nearly 50 girls in total, into the Lewis Eady competition and we were thrilled with the results.

Our Junior School String Orchestra came home with their second consecutive gold award, a fantastic achievement for our Years 3 – 6 string players who have flourished under the directorship of Ms Susan Bierre, assisted by Robin Snape and Loata Mahe.

This was followed by our Junior High chamber group performing Palladio by Karl Jenkins. These talented Year 7 and 8 students – Amanda Yu (violin) Vanessa Huang (violin), Jessica Gao (violin), Annabelle Frankham (viola), Madeleine Christiansen (cello), May Wang (double bass) – performed to a very high standard and won a silver award.

Our 27-strong brass and wind players from the Junior Concert Band, directed by Jill Christoff and Andrew Uren, came home with their first gold award.

This is a fantastic set of results for all these talented and aspiring young musicians.

JUNIOR AND SENIOR

In September, our Junior Hip Hop Team competed at AIMS, coming fourth out of 29 teams – a great improvement from seventh in 2018.

Our Senior Hip Hop Team competed in the Eutopia Dance Competition and were placed first in their section. They were also the highest scoring school team and were once again awarded a bid to compete in the Global Games in Hawaii in 2021. Additionally, 17 of our team flew to Queenstown on Friday 20 September to compete in the 2019 National Schools’ Hip Hop Competition, placing second after the first round, and third overall for the megacrews.

A huge thank you to choreographer and mentor Ashley Medcalfe, team manager Mindy Levene, team facilitator Rachael Brand and to all the parents for their continued support and commitment.