Term One is camp season for our Westlake musicians. So far, our choirs, Cantare, Cigno Voce, and Choralation, have all spent a long weekend rehearsing and bonding during camps held at school, the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, and the Hunua Ranges.

Cantare is our premier treble choir, directed by HOD Fiona Wilson. Since Term Four last year, Cantare has been preparing for its overseas tour to Indonesia and Malaysia during the July school holidays. Cantare will compete at the Bali International Choir Festival over five days and visit the Choral Academy in Kuala Lumpur. There are 42 singers in Cantare who are very excited to be travelling abroad to share music from New Zealand and hear other cultural choral music from around the world. They will also participate in New Zealand’s choral festival, The Big Sing, which is regionally adjudicated nationwide in June.

Choralation is our premier mixed choir, directed by HOD Fiona Wilson. This year, there are 48 singers from across both Westlake schools and recently, they camped in the Hunua ranges to learn their music and build their team choir culture. Choralation is preparing for an international choral competition that will be hosted in New Zealand for the first time. Over the July school holidays, 250 choirs will perform and compete in various venues around Auckland as part of the Interkultur World Choir Games. Choralation has also been invited to perform in a special Matariki concert, along with some Auckland and national choirs. This will be held in the middle of the festival at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell, featuring newly commissioned works by New Zealand composers. The pieces represent each star in the Matariki constellation, and the concert will be entirely sung in te reo Māori. It’s gearing up to be a very exciting year for our Westlake singers – we hope to see you at our many performances.

Cigno Voce is our Senior Girls choir, directed by Rachel Carson. The 36 singers were on camp from 9 – 11 February. The aim was to workshop their repertoire for the year and build connections and friendships within the choir. The weekend was full of workshops, sectionals, games, delicious food and laughter, and a camp concert to celebrate the diversity and many talents within Cigno Voce. This year, the choir is working towards the NZCF The Big Sing Auckland Regionals in June and the Senior Treble Voices Festival hosted by Westlake Girls High School.

A special thanks to Gnesyer Gomez (Vocal Coach), Anny Yu (Collaborative Pianist) and Elaine Xu (Wairau Dean), who assisted with the camp this year.

What do you get when you put 100 highly energetic and talented students from Westlake Girls and Westlake Boys together for four days? You get Production Camp – an action-packed weekend of preparation for our upcoming Westlake Productions. This year, the two schools will present a musical – Crazy for You – and a play – The Three Musketeers – with two casts alternating for the latter.

Last Thursday, the students travelled to Marsden Point Christian Camp, where they rehearsed from 8:30 am to 8:30 pm daily. This included intensive sessions focused on acting, choreography, polishing dance routines, singing workshops, and character analysis. And if that wasn’t enough, each day began with a 6:30 am. Jump Jam session and finished with games, quizzes, and the annual Lip-Sync contest! Camp finished with full run-throughs of each production. Needless to say, many more students were asleep on the bus home than on the way there! 

The standard of performances is already highly impressive, and with six weeks to go they will only get even better. Be sure to get along to both shows: alternating performances from 30 April to 11 May. (Dates listed below).

Crazy For You

• 30 April, Gala Night – 7.30 pm
• 2 May, 4 May, 8 May, 10 May – 7.30 pm
• 11 May – 2.30 pm

The Three Musketeers

• 1 May, Gala Night – 7.30 pm
• 3 May, 7 May, 9 May, 11 May – 7.30 pm
• 4 May -2.30 pm
• 5 May – 4 pm.

From 4 to 18 March, Westlake Girls High School hosted 18 Japanese students from Shinagawa Junior High School in Tokyo for a two-week study programme.

The Kapa Haka group welcomed the students and the Japanese students replied with songs. (Photo is of the two groups Kapa Haka and Shinagawa Junior High School)

In the mornings, the students attended English classes and in the afternoons, they followed an allocated buddy’s timetable. The context for their study within the English Programme was Tourism – Sustainable and Unsustainable. It included reading for a purpose (research), writing to summarise text and events, identifying and selecting a place of interest for tourists, and summarising information with a slide and oral presentation. The final part of the study was choosing a view of Auckland that appealed to them and completing a painting on canvas to take back to Japan as a memento of their visit to New Zealand.

On Wednesday, 6 March, and Wednesday, 13 March, the Japanese students visited the Auckland Zoo in the morning and the University of Auckland in the afternoon.

We hope the Shinagawa students enjoyed their overseas study experience just as much as we enjoyed having them.

During Term One, the various ensembles at Westlake embarked on their camps. On 1 March, the Westlake Instrumental Academy boarded the bus and journeyed to Ngaruawahia for a weekend filled with rehearsals, enjoyable activities, and team bonding.

The Westlake Instrumental Academy comprises multiple ensembles – WGHS Symphonic Band, Taharoto Orchestra, Westlake Girls Jazz Band, and our percussion ensemble, Swan Strike. The groups are directed and coordinated by Jono Howan and Jono Palmer.

While the WGHS Symphonic Band and Taharoto Orchestra have been long-standing groups at Westlake Girls, the Jazz Band and Swan Strike are newer additions, formed just last year. Consolidating these groups into one academy aims to foster unity among players and expose them to a variety of music genres and performance styles.
Preparations for upcoming performances were in full swing. The students, many of whom play across multiple groups, diligently devoted their focus and energy toward learning new pieces.

During the camp, students enjoyed great meals and engaging games, and they covered a range of impressive repertoire. Their hard work and progress over the weekend set a strong foundation for the rest of the year’s performances.

The camp’s success was only possible with the additional support of dedicated staff and supervisors, including Kasey Lui, Miriam Robinson, and Sian Howan.