The KBB Music Festival celebrated 40 years of music-making this year with a vast number of secondary school instrumental ensembles. These ensembles competed in four categories: Symphony Orchestras, Chamber Orchestras, Concert Bands, and Jazz Bands. The Festival runs from Monday to Friday in the Holy Trinity Cathedral and St Mary’s Cathedral in Parnell. It culminated in two Saturday Gala concerts, with the presentation of awards afterwards.

Our Westlake ensembles performed wonderfully, achieving the best results in quite some time. All four premier ensembles (featuring students from both schools) won gold. They were all selected to perform in the Gala concerts as one of the top four in each category. They also won five Best Performance awards for individual pieces – this is the most of any school in the competition. The developing players in our Instrumental Academy also performed well. All three ensembles were awarded a Bronze for their performances.

Westlake Symphony Orchestra – Gold; Best performance of a New Zealand Work (directed by David Squire)
Westlake Chamber Orchestra – Gold; Best performance of a New Zealand Work  (directed by Miranda Adams)
Westlake Concert Band – Gold;  Best performance of an arranged work, Best performance of a New Zealand Work (directed by Warwick Robinson)
Westlake Big Band – Gold; Best performance of a Ballad (directed by Hayley Barker)
WGHS Symphonic Band – Bronze (directed by Jono Howan)
WGHS Jazz Band – Bronze (directed by Jono Howan)
Taharoto Orchestra – Bronze (directed by Jono Palmer)