The last two weekends have been busy for our Westlake singers and their Musical Directors, as the choirs have enjoyed camps previously cancelled from Term 1.

Cantare (directed by HOD Music Fiona Wilson) was the first choir out to camp, with Nota Bella (directed by Elise Bradley) and Cigno Voce (directed by Rachel Carson) travelling out the following weekend. All the choirs stayed at Houghton’s Bush Camp in Muriwai, and the weekends consisted of singing workshops, sectional rehearsals, games, delicious food, laughter and camp concerts to celebrate the diversity and many talents within each choir.

Each camp concluded with a videoed concert, so students could share their development with friends and family. Since camp, Cantare has performed at Murray’s Bay Intermediate and Nota Bella performed in Year 11 Assembly.

Music students enjoy annual camps because of the shared focus to work on music, the opportunity to build connections and friendships within their groups, and to stay away from home for a few nights. Our choirs are working hard towards the annual Auckland Regional Festival ‘The Big Sing’, held at the Auckland Town Hall in mid-June. It has been a challenging start to the year under Red Level with many rehearsals held outside, but the choirs are sounding fantastic and everyone is looking forward to sharing their music with public audiences very soon.

Special thanks to the Musical Directors, staff support (Ms Ruth Reji, Ms Linley McCallum) Vocal consultants and Accompanists (James Harrison, Cathy Bennett, Gnesyer Gomez, Libby Montgomery, Anny Yu and Rachel Fuller) who assisted with the organising and running for these camps to go ahead.

We would love to see our Westlake Community come along to support all our choirs in our annual Westlake Choirs Concert (which will be the first opportunity for the public to hear the state of the art acoustics of our new Events Centre), on Tuesday 7 June at 7.30pm in the Westlake Girls Events Centre. Gold coin donation entry and we would appreciate you wearing a mask!