Stand Up Stand Out (SUSO) is a yearly competition that encourages students across Tāmaki Makaurau to share their interests and talents through music – they have two categories that our students entered this year: solo vocals and bands. This year saw us enter six solo vocalists and nine bands – varying within different music styles such as jazz, 2000s nostalgia and punk rock.
Entering the semi-finals are two solo vocalists and two bands: Sweeny Cahilig, Milly Corboy, Peach Mango Pie and Chopstix delivered an amazing performance to the judges and continued their success in the Auckland Town Hall on 31 August 2024. Chopstix have now gone on to secure their place in the FINAL, which is on Saturday 14 September in the Great Hall at Auckland Town Hall – an impressive feat and we wish them well as they compete with four other bands.
Click on the following details for the full story Stand Up Stand Out sets our students OUT from the rest | Sancta Maria College
KBB Festival took place, with our Symphonia kicking it off on Monday 12 August, earning a bronze winning performance. Following hot on their heels were our Stage Band who also received an impressive bronze award. Both our Big Band and Concert Band received silver awards with an impressive Tour Time Soloist Award for ‘Highest overall standard of Jazz Improvisation’ awarded to the Big Band. Click the following link for the full story KBB Festival hits high notes | Sancta Maria College
Finally, we have to commend three students who were invited to perform in the Honours Concert at the end of the festival. Ryan Ebron played bass in the jazz band, whilst Cady Lim and Ethan Karl played organ and double bass respectively. The concert was held on Friday 16 August at 8.30pm in Holy Trinity Cathedral, Parnell. We can be very proud of our young players to have been selected to represent our school at such an event.
Congratulations to all our students who performed at SUSO and KBB Festival, your talents and hours of practice were certainly worth it.
Play in South
Prior to the Play in South Concert on Tuesday 27 August, our Festival Orchestra were lucky to spend a two-hour musical mentoring session with three players from the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. Lauren Bennett (violin), Ashley Brown (lower strings) and Gaby Pho (woodwind and brass) gave our players lots of guidance on how best to play Strauss’ Radetsky March and Brahm’s Hungarian Dance.
This mentoring and concert event is a major step forward for our younger players as they work towards earning a place in our senior orchestra, as well as giving the more experienced of our students work as mentors. Both the mentoring session and the concert performance gave our Festival Orchestra an amazing experience.
We look forward to our last remaining competition this year, the Kids Sing.
