Choirs set for Big Sing fest

FORMER GLORY: The Rathkeale/St Matthew's Senior College Viva Camerata choir ahead of an award-winning performance at the 2012 Big Sing in Wellington. PHOTO/JUDY WAGG

Two choirs from St Matthew's Collegiate School and the Boys Choir from Rathkeale College will join voices at the Manawatu-Wanganui regional Big Sing Festival in Palmerston North.

Stanley Barnes, Big Sing Festival regional co-ordinator, said more than 600 students singing in 15 choirs will compete at the event, which will run at the Regent on Broadway on June 11.

There would be eight schools competing at the festival, he said, including Palmerston North Boys' High and Girls' High Schools, St Peter's College, Freyberg High School, Feilding High School and Nga Tawa Diocesan. Mr Barnes said the day sessions start at 10.30am and run through to 4.30pm with a lunch break between 12.30pm and 1.50pm and each choir is required to present a varied 10-minute programme, which includes at least one New Zealand composition as part of its repertoire.

"The choral pieces are wide-ranging in style which will give the audience much enjoyment at the competitive sessions throughout the day and at the evening gala concert that runs from 7pm to 8.30pm," Mr Barnes said. The adjudicator for the competitive element is Judy Bellingham, associate professor in voice at the University of Otago, he said.

Ms Bellingham will be judging similar events in Hastings, Wellington and New Plymouth and there will be 11 regional festivals held throughout New Zealand next month, Mr Barnes said.

He said three area adjudicators will meet in Auckland after the regional festivals to select the top 24 choirs to attend the Big Sing National Finale that will run in Auckland from August 21 to 23.

Tickets cost $15 each to the Palmerston North festival and are available from TicketDirect outlets and the Regent Ticket Office. School students are admitted free.