Arts News Term 3, Week 6

Celebrating Chamber Choir at the Big Sing Cadenza

Last weekend, the Chamber Choir girls travelled to Timaru to participate in the Big Sing Cadenza. The Cadenza is a regional festival, with 11 other competing choirs from around the South Island. 

The Big Sing Cadenza consisted of two days and was full of recitals and workshops. Each choir performed two performances and participated in three workshops. Tuilagi Dr Igalese Ete, the adjudicator, ran the workshops and conducted a mass choir of all the competing choirs. In the massed choir, we sang one piece in Fijiian and one in Samoan, unfamiliar languages. We found these pieces difficult at first, but we had so much fun learning the pieces and performing them at the Gala concert on Saturday night.

The Chamber Choir was the only choir to receive two awards at the Gala Concert. The first award we received was a Tūī award, the highest ranking award of excellence, and the second award was given solely to us, the Best Performance of a Piece in te reo Māori. We were extremely proud to receive both awards and represent our school in this festival. We have learnt so much from the weekend and are so grateful to Mrs Wilford, our conductor, for giving us this opportunity to participate in something so special.

By Alice Penney, Year 13

Celebrating Jazz Band on their success at Southern Jam

Earlier this August, our SMC Jazz Band visited Blenheim for the annual Southern Jam Jazz Festival. Southern Jam is a week-long youth Jazz Festival, and this year, this staple in the Jazz calendar included 21 bands from 17 schools. 

The festival includes many unique opportunities: a competition, gigging all around Blenheim in public venues, and several masterclass sessions - as a band, as a whole cohort, and in sections (vocals, rhythm, and woodwind/brass). We were fortunate enough to perform our setlist in two restaurants, two primary/intermediate schools, and at the finale gala with all the other bands. Our set included great songs that excited the crowds, like ‘Shake it Off’ and ‘Treasure’. We also included iconic jazz hits such as ‘Almost Like Being in Love’ and ‘Frim Fram Sauce’. These gigs were a lot of fun and an amazing opportunity to share our music and have real-life experience performing.

The competition and masterclass aspect of this festival was also a very helpful and fortunate experience. The talented and prestigious judges gave us feedback and wise insight into how to up our jazz game. 

We left the competition, achieving the bronze standard and receiving the award for the ‘Most Promising Band.’ We were all very pleased with our efforts and appreciated having staff like Ms Woods, Mr Walker, and Lana Law to help us achieve such a fantastic result. 

Overall, it was an incredible experience. We all had so much fun and learnt so much, and we’re already looking forward to next year!

By Emily Chambers, Yr 12

THEATREFEST
Congratulations to the cast of Ōtautahi Rocks', a new play written by Ruth Agnew, who had outstanding success at the Regional TheatreFest competition on the 18th of August. What a fantastic opportunity to perform this piece again for a new audience. The team came away with the following awards: 

Distinction Award for Production of a New Zealand Play

Excellence Award for Overall Design

The Cast:

Tina Xu

Emily Davis

Harriet Thorp

CJay (India) Horey

Rhea Wallace

Bridget Rooney

Kylana Peauafi Symonds

Featuring the voices of:

Emily Chambers

Caitlin Ching 

Congratulations to these students on another fantastic performing arts success in 2024.

BANDQUEST 2024
On Monday, three middle school rock bands took to the stage of the James Hay Theatre to compete in the Nationwide Bandquest competition…and what a day it was!

They were a joy from start to finish, and they all loved the experience. They learned so much about professional performance skills, values, and on-stage confidence. Steve Fowler had two of his bands performing, The Metallic Stars and The Ladybirds, and Emily Farrell had one of her bands performing, The Rippers.

The Ladybirds won the Keyboard Player award, the Metallic Stars claimed the Style award, and The Rippers placed second overall—all fantastic achievements.

Huge thanks to Steve and Emily. Between them, they tutor around 13 bands, and they are such great role models and mentors to our students. What lucky kids they are.

MASTERCLASS SUCCESS

A masterclass run by two world-renowned University of Adelaide string players, Edith Salzmann (cello) and Elizabeth Layton (violin), took place on Tuesday, the 13th of August, in the Christ's College Recital Room. Orchestral String players from St Margaret's College and Christ's College attended, gaining lots of tips and tricks from Edith and Liz, and our very own Arabella Logan was one of the featured soloists, performing 'Theme from Schindler's List' by John Williams on violin. Bravo Arabella!

We look forward to your performance of this work with the SMC String Orchestra in our Music Showcase concert in the last week of term.

DANCE SHOWCASE

We are excited to promote our annual Dance Showcase, which will take place on Saturday, August 31st. 

This evening will celebrate NCEA and IB dance choreographies, as well as students from our wide range of co-curricular middle and senior school dance groups #takingthefloor to showcase their hard work from the year. A range of student-led, guest-led, and teacher-led choreography will be on display. 

Please join us on Saturday, August 31st, at 7 p.m. in the Charles Luney Auditorium. Admission is free. 

COLLECTIVE CABARET

The Arts Council is excited to present a Collective Cabaret on Tuesday, September 3rd. All students are welcome to #takethefloor with performance items in the Ngaio Marsh Theatre between 3:45 and 5 p.m. 

If you are interested in signing up, please email jonesa@stmargarets.school.nz

ARTS SOIREE

SMC Senior Arts Council Presents

The Mamma Mia Arts Soiree

Thursday 17th October 2024

6pm | SMC Cafeteria

Our annual Arts Soiree will take place on Thursday, 17th of October, in the St Margaret’s Cafeteria at 6pm. This event is a wonderful opportunity for all students and their parents to gather together and celebrate a phenomenal year in the performing arts. Over a Greek-inspired dinner with mocktails, we will enjoy music, games and company in a Mamma Mia-inspired environment. So come on “dancing queens” (and kings) “feel the beat of the tambourine,” grab your feather boas and don your sequins, let’s bust out some of ABBA’s greatest hits.

Tickets can be purchased for $50 via Trybooking

https://www.trybooking.com/nz/TTZ

UPCOMING EVENTS

We have a great lineup of Arts events for the rest of the year. 

Check them out and mark your calendar!  All are welcome to come along and show your support.

Collective Cabaret -  Tuesday 3rd September 3:45pm, Black Box

Itinerant Music Concert - Monday 9th September 3:45pm, CLA

Speech and Drama Showcase - Tuesday 10th September 3:45pm - 4:45pm, Black Box.  Year 9 to 12 students performing selected pieces from their lessons and exams. 

Senior Art Awards - Tuesday 17th September 2:30pm, CLA

Music Showcase - Tuesday 17th September 7:00pm, CLA

Senior Theatre Sport Competition - late September (more info coming…)

Art Soiree - Tuesday 17th October.  

Middle School Production with Christ’s College - “Puffs”, more info coming soon.

Middle School Art Awards - Thursday 7th of November