The Big Sing
On Tuesday 22nd June, the Sanctus Choir of Sancta Maria College travelled to the Auckland Town Hall to participate in ‘The Big Sing 2021’. The Big Sing is a Secondary Schools Choral Festival which is produced each year by the New Zealand Choral Federation. Over 60 secondary school choirs participate each year in the Auckland Regional event which takes place over three days. The music ranges from contemporary to classical and the standard of singing is always incredibly high.
The Sanctus Choir performed three pieces;
• Cantante Brasilia by Jay Althouse
• Journey of the Kuaka by Diana Rhodes
• Gloria in Excelsis by Roger Emerson
Head of Music, Stuart Gibbs conducted each of the three pieces while Gabriel Heruela and Jasmine Liu accompanied the performances on the piano.
The adjucator was very impressed by the group and gave high praise saying, “The choir was clearly well rehearsed and enjoyed singing. There was precision aplenty, back up by oodles of energy. Well done!”
Stuart Gibbs our Head of Music said that the rehearsals for this event started at the beginning of the year. The musical pieces were chosen to reflect the faith-based values of the college as well as being challenging songs for each singer to master. Mr Gibbs said it was a pleasure as always to take the Sanctus choir to compete and the students really shone during their performance.
Well done to all students involved!
Sanctus Choir members
Mary Aguirre, Ailish Aquino, Kres Bosales, Levi Bricknell, Gwendolyn Brighouse, Jessa Calacsan, Francesca Camacho, Christian Cozo, Teresa Croker, Chloe Dangatan, Hannah Dangatan, Jerseyleigh Gallardo, Gabriel Heruela, Camilla Isip, Akshita Ann Joby, Marina Jones, Jennifer Joseph, Then John Karl, Jack Keenihan, Percecilia La Madrid, Alexandria Lazatin, Jasmine Liu, Theodore Lopez, Bianca Macalintal, Christy Mathachan, Sarah McCormick, Raphael Meregildo, Larysse Moreno, Daniel Pereira, Jarra Piatos, Kayleigh Pieters, Harini Pushpakumar, Alanna Santoso, Aloyze Tafu, Novyna Tolentino, Sian Villeran, Nicole Xu, Chesca Zambrano, Jennifer Zeng.
Combined Schools Music Festival
Sancta Maria College, along with Sancta Maria Primary school and Our Lady Star of the Sea, joined together on Thursday 1st July to present a combined music festival. Together, the joint choir and orchestra played four songs: Cantar (a Latino faith-based piece), In My Room (The Beach Boys’ classic), ABBA’s Super Trouper and a glorious final number by composer Jay Althouse, called ‘Just A Single Voice’. Each school also provided a three-piece set of music. Sancta Maria College’s set featured Harini Pushpakumar and Camille Isip singing Alicia Keys song ‘If I Ain’t Got You.’
The Sancta Maria College contingent of the Festival Orchestra played O Du Lieber Augustin and our Chamber Ensemble, Il Sistetto, performed the song ‘Evermore’ from Beauty and The Beast.
The orchestra was made up from Sancta Maria College’s youngest and newest players, guided by senior players from the Symphonia and Big Band, as well as a smaller number of players from OLSOS.
This was a hugely special event and we would like to thank Stuart Gibbs for his vision on this project.
Classics at 12
Classics at 12 is an initiative run by the Howick Uxbridge Centre. Across a series of Fridays during May and June, a number of local secondary schools were invited to perform at the Uxbridge theatre. Sancta Maria College performed with our Sanctus Choir and Symphonia.
Sanctus performed their Big Sing set (just four days before they sang it at the Town Hall): Gloria In Excelsis by Roger Emerson, Journey of the Kuaka by Diana Rhodes and Cantate Brasilia by Jay Althouse.
Our solo singers also performed, including Hannah Dangatan’s rendition of Mancini’s Moon River and Harini Pushpakumar gave us La Vie En Rose. The Symphonia performed what will be their KBB Festival set: Aguas De Marco by Antonio Carlos Jobim, The Seagull & The Song of the Kingfisher by David Hamilton and Libertango by Astor Piazzolla.
All performances were well received by a large crowd and our players have been invited back for 2022, as well as being offered the chance to perform at the Uxbridge Centre a second time next year, as part of a concert series for younger children. We look forward to both opportunities!
