Music on their precocious minds
Palmerston North secondary schools have been winning music awards left, right and centre lately, during a busy term of competitions.
The Manawatu round in the annual NZCT Chamber Music Contest saw Palmerston North Boys’ High School come out on top, with No Frets winning the best group overall.
Year 10 pupil Ciaran Carroll is the pianist for the group and he said they haven’t been together long, so the award was a nice surprise.
‘‘We get along well. The piece that we played was a lot more complex than a lot of the other groups, so it made it easier to get into the music. We were told we played with a lot of passion.’’
Palmerston North Girls’ High School also had a good showing, picking up various awards, including the trophy for the most promising junior group.
Emily Mackay, from Buongiorno Trio, said it was a really great award to receive.
‘‘It’s our first year together, so that was pretty cool knowing we are on the right track.’’
Hail Cesar, a trio made up of a Cornerstone Christian School pupil, a Freyberg High School pupil and a home-schooled pupil, picked up two awards, a highly commended and the adjudicator award.
The Big Sing regional secondary schools choir festival saw Palmerston North Boys’ High and Palmerston North Girls’ High pick up top honours.
Boys’ high’s OK Chorale and girls’ high’s Cantatrices both received highly commended awards from Wellington adjudicator, composer, music teacher, singer and choir director Pepe Becker.
Boys’ high’s head prefect and Ok Chorale member Patrick Takurua said they were pleased with their best a cappella and best overall performance awards.
‘‘It’s a good environment to be into music here. It’s fun and just chilled and credit goes to our teachers. It’s just a cool place to be and I think that comes through.’’
Boys’ high recently competed at the Manawatu Jazz Festival, where they won the best Manawatu jazz band and best high school band as well. Patrick said they gave the ‘‘best performance we had ever done, so that was good’’.
Emily said it has been a busy term, but she enjoys seeing the same faces at the competitions and catching up with all the music pupils are doing.
‘‘Many of us have grown up with the people that we do the competitions with. So the group of people that we were competing against at chamber music, we had all started music at around the same time and we have seen each other grow in music. It makes it a really good social event as well as a competition.’’
The Smokefree Rockquest’s Manawatu final earlier in the term also saw girls’ high indie-pop two-piece Fruit Juice Parade take out the top band and people’s choice prizes, alongside Peyote Morete, from Kapiti College, and Carson Taare, from boys’ high, who were selected as the two solo winners for Manawatu.