Choral Showcase

As the Auckland music festivals edge closer, Term 2 for the College Music Department is all about dedicated preparation for their upcoming competitions. Last night’s Choral Showcase in the Chapel provided a much needed audience for our choirs to sing to, prior to performing for a panel of judges at next week’s Big Sing competition in the Town Hall.

The evening opened with our Premier auditioned choir, Kentoris, singing ‘Jesus Gjor’ in Norwegian followed by Mozart’s most popular choral motet, ‘Ave Verum.’ They finished their first set with the moving, ‘Set me as a seal’ by New Zealand composer, David Childs.

Menasing is our all male choir who have made their mark over the last two years with their often quirky performances. Dressed smartly in suits and the trademark blue choral shirt, they opened with the short and somewhat irreverent ‘Mary’ based on a Roald Dahl version of ‘Mary, Mary Quite Contrary’ – unlike the original nursery rhyme, this Mary is not tending her garden but her ‘bratty kids’ in a ‘council flat!’

‘Dualman', sung in Gaelic, featured a solo by the talented Jack Muirhead singing the fiendishly tongue-tying words. The group finished with Mendelssohn’s ‘Wasserfahrt’, a popular piece to showcase the range of high and low voices.

Next to the Chapel stage was our youngest choir, A Minor from the Middle School. Whilst their Kids Sing competition doesn’t take place until Term 3, this was a great opportunity to start dispelling the nerves before singing on a big stage to a wider audience next term! They opened with the gentle, traditional folk song, ‘Shanandoah’ before delivering ‘I bought me a cat’ – a children’s nonsense rhyme that added a new animal sound with each refrain.

Following the interval, our newest ensemble, ‘The Kents Singers,’ comprising our most talented choristers, came forwarded. This is an octet that sing acapella – one person per part, no accompaniment and no one to conduct. That is – no one to save you! It requires a very tight set of vocal skills. As the Octet was unfortunately a Septuplet last night, Choral Director, Mr Lachlan Craig stepped into the breach for the fun piece, ‘Short People’ followed by the well-known Lennon/McCartney number, ‘Blackbird.’

Our all-female choir, Musettes are strong in number and perform beautifully in harmony. Last night they sang the haunting ‘Seal Lullaby’ by Eric Whiteacre, originally written for Disney to accompany a Rudyard Kipling story – but canned in favour of Kung Fu Panda! Definitely a loss, but Musettes’ gain! Their second song, ‘Weep no more’ was adapted from a Keats poem and their final piece, ‘Ah si mon moine,’ part of Quebec folk tradition, was sung in French.

Kentoris wrapped up the evening with three final songs. ‘The Panther’ transported us to the jungle followed by the traditional ‘Greensleeves’ a well-known tune that has been unceremoniously adopted by Mr Whippy vans world-wide!

Their final piece for the evening was the premiere of ‘There’s no earthly way’ written specifically for Kentoris by Andrew Baldwin. With text drawn from Roald Dahl’s ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’ this was a fantastic number that was both slightly creepy yet engaging – and finished with a bang!

In summing up, Head of Music, Mr Ross Gerritsen acknowledged the huge impact that Mr Craig has had on our choral programme along with their accompanists, Ms Gracie Francis and Mr Tim Carpenter. We thank them for their fantastic work with our students. We now wish our choirs well next week as they take to the stage with school choirs from throughout Auckland to try and achieve selection for the National Choir competition.

KENTORIS
Jesus Gjor – arr. Grete Pedersen
Ave Verum – W.A. Mozart
Set Me As a Seal – David Childs (NZ)

MENASING
Mary – Andrew Baldwin (NZ)
Dulaman – Michael McGlynn
Wasserfahrt – Felix Mendelssohn

A MINOR
Shenandoah – Traditional
I Bought Me a Cat – Traditional arr. Aaron Copland 

THE KENTS SINGERS - OCTET
Short People – Randy Newman
Blackbird – Lennon/McCartney 

MUSETTES
Seal Lullaby – Eric Whitacre
Weep No More – David Childs
Ah Si Mon Moine – arr. Donald Patriquin

KENTORIS
The Panther – Eric Whitacre
Greensleeves – Trad. Arr. Chilcott
There’s No Earthly Way – Andrew Baldwin (NZ)

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