Our Premier Westlake Choirs – Cantare, Choralation and Voicemale recently returned from NZCF’s The Big Sing Finale. Cantare and Choralation are directed by HOD Music, Fiona Wilson. The Festival was held in the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington over three days, where our choirs participated with 21 other top-ranking choirs for Bronze, Silver, or Gold awards. Each choir presented two recitals of choral music from various music styles, which were marked by three guest adjudicators, one of whom came from Australia. At the Saturday Gala evening, there were 7 Golds presented and each of our three choirs received one for their recitals. Cantare and Choralation have consistently been awarded Gold since 2017.
There are three additional trophies awarded for best performances of specific music styles. For the third year in a row, Cantare were awarded the Tour Time Trophy for ‘Best Performance of a Choral Art Work’ for their performance of ‘Kotoba Asobi Uta’ by Japanese composer Ko Matsushita. Choralation also won the Hutt City Trophy for ‘Best Performance of a New Zealand or Pasifika work’, for their performance of ‘O Magnum Mysterium’ by New Zealand composer Chris Artley.
It is both a challenge and a privilege to consistently achieve excellence and Cantare and Choralation have enjoyed an exceptional year of national and international competition success. Mrs Wilson would like to thank her choristers for their outstanding commitment and effort throughout the year and the staff team of James Harrison, Yun-Pai Shu, Rachel Carson, Gnesyer Gomez and Kasey Lui, for their expertise and support.
