Region’s choirs sing their hearts out

It was a musical start to the week as the Michael Fowler Centre was packed with school choirs singing their hearts out.

Fifteen hundred students from 40 choirs took part in the Wellington regional Big Sing competition, ranging in size from 18 to a 240-person choir from Wellington East Girls College.

The Tawa College Blue Notes choir hoped to make it five Big Sing finales in a row by qualifying at the competition held on June 18 and 19.

Each choir sang three pieces in a bid to be one of the 24 selected from across the country to compete in the Big Sing finale held in August and September.

Blue Notes director Isaac Stone said before the event that his choir had never worked harder. ‘‘Whether we get in to the finale or not, obviously we’d love it, but if we don’t that doesn’t negate all of that great musical development we’ve had for the first half of the year.’’

The Blue Notes was one of two Wellington choirs selected for the finale last year and received a Silver award.

Big Sing Wellington regional coordinator Elizabeth Crayford said New Zealand’s standard of choral singing was recognised across the globe.

‘‘We are the envy of the choral community around the world. They are always amazingly impressed at the standard of singing amongst the secondary schools.’’

Crayford said that by being in a choir, it gave students a number of new experiences.

‘‘Singing in a group is a wonderful thing.

‘‘It has a very positive impact on your body and your mind so it’s a really nice thing to introduce kids to at a young age.

‘‘You learn a lot about different kinds of music from the sort you may have been listening to.

A lot of the students won’t have sung classical before and they learn that range which is great.’’