OBs on Stage... Every auditorium in town
By Konrad Hanson | Posted: Thursday June 13, 2024
It was a big weekend for musicians around Dunedin with the NZCT Chamber Music Contest, the Songfest singing competition, and The Big Sing choir competition.
In Marama Hall down at the university, Luke Woo and Lochie Ing-aram took part in the chamber contest, both as pianists. Luke performed in a trio with two students from Logan Park. They performed Two Postcards - For Violin, Oboe & Piano by Andrey Rubtsov extremely well and gained Highly Commended. Lochie performed an interesting piece for eight hands on two pianos. Lochie, however, ended up with one arm in a cast. Luckily for the group, an eight-handed piece still works well with seven hands. If any other group had a one-handed pianist, the performance would be greatly affected.
In our school auditorium, Dunedin's top young singers were on display as soloists in the Songfest competition. We had three talented young men in their first competition hit out. Year 13 students Lachie Hall, Bradley Escueta, and Emerson Walker sang well, and showed how far they have come in a short time. All three boys have been getting lessons at school with Pat Scally Richardson, and are involved in musical groups such as the choir and production. It was wonderful to hear three different voices in three different styles, and all performed accurately and expressively.
Our final performances came from our boys choir, and our combined OBHS/OGHS choir at The Big Sing on Monday. It is a wonderful opportunity to perform with an audience, especially in such a fantastic venue like the town hall. The choirs performed well in the competition, and especially stepped it up in the gala concert in the evening. The boys performed some great items, including Gold in the Mountain, by American band Ashes and Arrows. It is a beautiful song that is made more significant because one of the members, Ciaran McMeeken, is an old boy of the school.
It was a big weekend of music, and now many of the boys get a relaxing day or two break before they hit their production rehearsals leading up to the performances of Legally Blonde, starting on June 19.
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