Performing Arts

Without a doubt, Term 2 presents our busiest time in the Performing Arts calendar. Once again, our groups have risen to the challenge after last year’s cancellation of so many competitions. Already many of our students have been involved in nationwide events, kicking off with the annual regional competitions for the Shakespeare Festival, NZCT Chamber Music Contest, Rockquest, Hip Hop and Big Sing. We have been thrilled with the results across so many disciplines and look forward to more fabulous successes at both regional and national level later in the year.

JHS Concerto Competition

We ran our first arts event in the second week of Term 1 this year and there was no doubt the display of talent from our JHS instrumentalists was nothing short of phenomenal. The competition was brought forward, and this was the first time our students, and the community, had the chance to hear Dio’s beautiful new Steinway piano.

Despite last-minute withdrawals, down to the wire decisions and continual disruptions, this ‘third time lucky’ event was indeed very exciting. There was some precocious talent on display and the adjudicator, Tim Wayne-Wright, was blown away by the technical assuredness and musicianship of these instrumentalists, not to mention the stunning new Steinway concert grand! Arriving one day before lockdown last August, this magnificent piano has been waiting for an opportunity to be played ever since, and our JHS students were the first to be given the honour.

The event was live-streamed to ensure families who were unable to attend due to COVID restrictions could enjoy the event.

Iris Guo Ella Zhang

Mika Kurosawa Meredith Leu Chanelle Huang

Eva Zheng

Overall Winner

Chanelle Huang – piano (Year 7)

Most Engaging Performance Eva Zheng – guzheng (Year 8)

Junior Piano Cup

Iris Guo – piano (Year 8)

Junior Woodwind Cup

Ella Zhang – flute (Year 8)

Years 7 and 8 1st prize

Chanelle Huang – piano (Year 7)

2nd prize

Ella Zhang – flute (Year 8)

Years 9 and 10 1st prize

Mika Kurosawa – cello (Year 9)

2nd prize

Meredith Leu – violin (Year 9)

SENIOR CONCERTO

AND ARIA COMPETITION

At the beginning of Term 2, the brightest and best of our senior vocal and instrumental talent battled it out in this annual competition.

With many withdrawals due to COVID, it was decided to combine both singing and instrumental performances, with five vocal and five instrumental finalists drawn from 30 auditionees.

Adjudicators Ms Andre Creighton and Mr David Gordon both commented on the impressively high standards.

CONCERTO Overall Senior Concerto Winner

Elise Ji (Year 13)

Piano Cup

Erica Hu (Year 13)

Violin Cup

Eleanor Christiansen (Year 12)

Brass Cup

Hannah Wellington (Year 11)

Viola Cup

Elise Ji (Year 13)

Woodwind Cup

Casey Lam (Year 11)

ARIA 1st place

Keltie-Kewan Young (Year 13)

2nd place

Emma Parton (Year 13)

3rd place

Amanda Yu (Year 11)

Most Promising Vocalist

Eva Wen (Year 12)

Above right Senior Concerto winners (L-R) Elise Ji, Eleanor Christiansen, Casey Lam, Erica Hu and Hannah Wellington.

Right: Senior Aria winners (L-R) Keltie-Kewan Young, Emma Parton, Amanda Yu and Eva Wen. Chamber Orchestra

Talented young instrumentalists

Year 7 violinist Angel Tao is one of our younger cohort of incredibly talented musicians here at Dio. At the end of 2021 Angel won first prize in the International online competition ‘American Edition’ organised by World Talent Raking (USA), Fiestalonia international (UK) and Open Italy. This was quite an achievement for Angel, who was a Year 6 violinist at the time, to compete against world-wide talent.

Angel also achieved her ABRSM Grade 8 violin exam with one of the highest national marks and her Grade 7 piano exam with 147/150, the highest marks in the country.

Angel is also an extremely talented dancer and singer, having won many competition cups in these disciplines. For Chinese New Year celebrations, she performed a stunning traditional Chinese dance to high acclaim. and create different timbres. Eva was singled out by the adjudicator at our recent JHS Concerto competition. He said: “This was an incredibly beautiful and sophisticated performance, painting clear images and creating a hauntingly atmospheric sound-world. I was captivated from start to finish.”

These young, talented instrumentalists are our up-and-coming Dio stars.

Year 8 student Eva Zheng is a star on the guzheng and having won many outside-of-school competitions, she is about to embark on her professional grades on this beautiful and highly complex instrument. The guzheng has been around for over 2000 years and is hugely popular in China due to its versatility and beautiful haunting sound.

Part of the technique is the very special nail extensions used to pluck the strings

Eva Zheng

“This was an incredibly beautiful and sophisticated performance, painting clear images and creating a hauntingly atmospheric sound-world. I was captivated from start to finish.”

Tim Wayne-Wright

STEINWAY

CONCERT GRAND SETTLES INTO DIO

The Rolls Royce of pianos, these are simply the best and we have been very fortunate to have had our Dio instrument hand-picked from the Hamburg factory in Germany last year.

Steinway and Sons still dominates the market with over 4000 of the world’s top pianists owning and performing on its pianos, and 95% of all major venues worldwide owning at least one Steinway Concert Grand piano. Carnegie Hall in New York owns 32!

After 25 years of fundraising and with some generous benefactors contributing along the journey, finally Dio is the proud owner of a magnificent Steinway Concert D grand piano. It is only fitting that our world-class auditorium, designed to provide the school community with the very best facilities has, at its heart, a piano of this stature.

It is an integral component to any performing arts programme and will be used in all aspects of music making from solo piano recitals, chamber music, collaborative dance, orchestral concerti and opera to rock, pop and contemporary music. Our highly talented students deserve an ‘A grade’ instrument to match the quality of the build and our top-end programme. As a school, we feel very lucky indeed. We will give this grande dame the launch she deserves – when COVID restrictions allow. A promotional video, using our talented Diocesan students, has recently been filmed. This project is one of two school-wide promotional videos that will be released in 2022. The girls were very excited to be part of this project and were amazed at the filming process and just how long it takes to get that one shot right! It was wonderful to see our theatre stage turned into a mini film set. The behind-the-scenes shots illustrate the illusions and magic that can be created using lights, dry ice, a mini trampoline, crash mat and some very expensive camera gear!

As Principal Heather McRae said in her scene: “Inspiring creative young women is part of our mission for the future. This stunning investment sits at the heart of our beautiful space. It will become part of our history, connecting us through music, dance and drama, through every genre of music past, present and future. A legacy in the making...”

COMPETITIONS

HIP HOP

Our junior and senior hip hop crews performed over Queen’s Birthday weekend in Tauranga at the Project Youth Hip Hop Competition. Rehearsing during the holidays under the supercharged mentorship of Ashley Metcalfe, these girls really pumped out some energy, and the results were fabulous. Our junior crew took first place and the senior Mega Crew, who also choreographed much of the dance, took fourth place in a really competitive category with over 14 entries from around the North Island.

We are really proud of the girls and everyone who contributed to getting this show on the road so early in the year despite illness, absence and general fatigue. Well done team!

Project Youth Hip Hop Junior Crew

EXCITING DIO AND DILWORTH JOINT PROJECTS FOR 2022

DuringTerm 1 some exciting collaborative projects with Dilworth were established. We have created three cross-campus ensembles – Divinitus, Concert Band and Big Band, all which involve staff and students from both schools. Dio and Dilworth have a long history of collaboration in the arts across musical productions and choirs, and we are thrilled to see this grow and flourish.

In Term 1, rehearsing these ensembles separately – and outdoors – with all the correct protocols was a priority. With restrictions finally lifted in Term 2, we were able to make music together once again and we all look forward to a great year!

Rockquest Our contemporary music programme has been in full swing again this year. We have many new groups at Year 7 and 8 levels, all of whom have participated in outdoor lunchtime concerts in the Chapel Courtyard. These concerts have been supported by enthusiastic crowds and they provide a great performance experience for our younger bands, who get their chance to perform at BandQuest later in the year. In Term 2, four of our senior bands – Lift, tv_racket, 2nd World Problems and No Signal - represented the School at this year’s Rockquest, showcasing their funky original compositions. Fantastically, two of these bands made it through to the regional finals – they then had three weeks to prepare a new song and submit their video for selection into the national finals.

NZCT Chamber Music Competition

With 18 girls over five different instrumental combinations, our talented Dio musicians performed magnificently at the regional round of this competition. This year has been particularly challenging with every group being affected by COVID disruptions.

We are particularly proud to be the only group in the competition featuring an all-girl brass quintet – DioQuin Brass performing a recently composed New Zealand work. And we are also the only group using a harpsichord – our JHS groups are going all-out with Baroque music this year!

Year 8 flautist Ella Zhang won the Adjudicator’s Award at the Auckland finals in June.

Members of all five Chamber Music groups, L to R – Angel Tao, Madeleine Christiansen, Ella Riley, Sammy Smith, Hannah Wellington, Eleanor Christiansen, Iris Guo, Elly Lau, Meredith Leu, Mika Kurosawa, Eve Lu, Ellan Zhang, Lotosina Tavui and Catarina Young.

tv_racket - Hattie Johnston, Mia Reid, Ella Reid

Lift - Olivia Turnbull, Eleanor Tenbensel, Victoria Wright, Olivia Smithies, Georgia Burns