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Craighead Diocesan School Choir is one of two choirs that won the top award at the Big Sing South Island Cadenza held in Timaru in 2022.
Timaru will host hundreds of visitors this weekend for the “festival of choirs” that is the Big Sing South Island Cadenza.
The town has been chosen for a third time by the New Zealand Choral Federation to host the two-day festival at Craighead School Auditorium and Sacred Heart Basilica, and the event will feature 12 choirs and about 310 students, from Invercargill, Dunedin, Timaru, Christchurch, Blenheim and Nelson.
The students are expected to be joined by family, friends, music teachers and support staff.
NZCF South Island cadenza coordinator Wayne Pahl said the “festival of choirs” was a “very exciting” event for people who enjoyed singing.
“Each choir performs at a very high level during the cadenza,” Pahl said.
“The cadenza will end with a gala concert on Saturday, and there will also be four competition sessions over the two days.
“It’s good for Timaru because it brings a lot of people in the middle of winter. It’s a significant musical event for the town.”
AIMAN AMERUL MUNER/Stuff
Polyhymnia of King’s and Queen’s High Schools, of Dunedin, on the second day of last year’s cadenza.
Choirs were chosen after the regional Big Sing Competition, and represented the next highest-scoring choirs after those selected for the National Finale, which would be held this year in Auckland from August 25 to 27.
The only South Canterbury choir to be selected was the Craighead Diocesan School Choir, directed by choir director, Catherine Anderson.
Craighead, jointly with Blenheim’s Marlborough Girls’ College, won the top award of the event in 2022.
Anderson said the Craighead choir was “very excited” and “proud” to be part of the cadenza over the two days.
“And I’m pleased to be directing them. The choir have put in hard work this year,” Anderson said.
She said they had been preparing for a few weeks as they took part in the Otago regionals earlier.
“The choir performed very well and continued the tradition of high quality singing.”
AIMAN AMERUL MUNER/Stuff
Craighead Diocesan School Choir at the Big Sing South Island Cadenza in 2022.
The 2023 adjudicator was Dr Andrew Withington, recently returned from the United States, where he was an assistant professor at Westminster College, Pennsylvania, with responsibility for choral performance.
Withington was previously the artistic director of the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir.
Anderson said they were looking forward to working with Withington.
Pahl said he encouraged everyone to come along for the “musical feast”.
The Big Sing South Island Cadenza would culminate in a gala concert in Sacred Heart Basilica at 7pm on Saturday where each choir would showcase an item from their recitals and would join together at the end in a massed choir performance.
All sessions were open to the public and tickets were available from Newman’s Musicworks on Stafford St in Timaru.
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