CULTURE Music
CHAPEL CHOIR
The Chapel Choir had another successful year at The Big Sing, performing three pieces, all
College’s premier senior choir, Schola Cantorum, also performed three pieces at The Big Sing, coming away with the best male choir award for their performance day. The vocal range and rhythmic precision of the choir was clearly evident and, despite being a fairly young group, the boys certainly stepped up when it came to performance. Head of Schola Cantorum Nicholas Lidstone led the boys in rehearsals and performance, with support from his fellow seniors. The group performed a varied list, including “Let all the world in every corner sing” by music teacher Nick Sutcliffe, the traditional Irish ballad “Danny Boy”, accompanied by Year 13 student Tom Kelly on flute, and Peter Cornelius’s haunting “Absolve Domine” from the Mass for the Dead.
2019 was another great year for the Chapel Choir and other choral groups at College. The choir of 88 boys led at weekly Chapel services, as well as performing in a number of concerts throughout the year. The seniors and I were extremely pleased with how the year went, with a particular highlight being our performance at The Big Sing. The Chapel Choir fulfilled their primary goal of leading weekday and Sunday services. With rehearsals twice a week, we were able to expand our repertoire, allowing us to perform a new work at each Sunday service. This depth in repertoire also provided a solid base from which to choose our pieces for The Big Sing.
significantly varied in style. National Adjudicator Robert Wiremu praised the choir for their performance of all pieces, but in particular the traditional Ma ¯ ori waiata “Toia Mai”. Accompanied by guitarists Dominic Edmond and Alex Brett, the choir successfully managed to combine melody and haka in their performance. The choir won the award for best classical work for their stunning performance of Mozart’s “Dies Irae” from his popular “Requiem”. The final piece was “Sisi ni moja”, an upbeat contemporary work by American composer Jacob Narverud. Overall, the choir received well-deserved recognition for all their hard work.
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Christ’s College Canterbury
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