Two schools dominate competition

Students from Aotea and Tawa colleges have sung their way to success again, collecting more than half the available trophies at the National Secondary School’s Young Singers in Harmony Barbershop competition at the Michael Fowler Centre last Wednesday.

Tawa claimed the boys’ chorus trophy, with Aotea taking both boys’ and girls’ quartet trophies, and the girls’ chorus trophy off last year’s winner Maiden Tawa. Only one other school has won the girls’ chorus since 2002.

Aotea were also second in the boys’ chorus and girls’ quartet.

Tawa’s quartets, Euphoria and Cadence, were fourth equal and sixth respectively. Aotea’s AC Times quartet finished just four points ahead of Kapiti College’s Midnight Quartet.

While national barbershop competitions are hotly contested, with just a few points separating the top teams, Aotea was an easy winner of the Young Women in Harmony quartet. The school entered two top quartets, MarvelUS, who headed off its second team Take Four by a massive 55 points.

‘‘ They have a very unique sound,’’ Aotea’s head of music Marilyn Baigent said. ‘‘They have also been performing to a lot of community groups – that gives them confidence’’.

MarvelUS member Tipapa Bracken, 16, said the encouragement of her teachers was a big factor in their success.

‘‘I had a feeling we would win, the teachers make sure we perform,’’ she said.

Tawa’s 40- member Acafellas headed off Aotea in the barbershop boys’ chorus by just four points, after coming second the previous two years.

Acafella Matthew Barris, 14, said when he heard the second and third placings read out he thought they were fourth or fifth.

Tawa College music teacher Charlotte Murray said it was a tough competition, with not only vocal chords being assessed.

‘‘The competition is to a really high standard – all the groups were pretty close,’’ she said. ‘‘It comes down to how well they put their story across.’’

Tawa was the sole Wellington school to qualify for the Big Sing – a national choral competition in Auckland later this week.

Barbershop winners: From left, Stephen O’Connell, Evander Seiulii, Jullian Wright (AC Times) Sina Esera, Anastasia Leuluai, Roseta Leasi, Anastasia Seumanutafa (MarvelUS). Bottom row, from left, Daena Scissons, Juanita Leynes, Mellisa Bailey, Mereana...