They've been singing in the car, in the shower, in their gardens and in various rehearsal rooms, and now they are ready to sing for Taranaki.
Over the past few months, various local choirs have been working on a harmonious and tuneful project that will feature in Taranaki Art Festival Trust's Spiegel Fest this month.
Called Taranaki Sings - Our Singers, Our Songs, the project features local choirs Ars Nova, City Sounds, Living Harmony, Taranaki Male Choir, Taranaki Singing Venture, Taranaki Children's Choir and Spotswood College kapa haka group Te Kura Tuarua O Ngamotu and led by composer Julian Raphael, and includes work by scores of first-time songmakers.
"The tagline of this event is Our Singers, Our Songs, because that's what's at the heart of the project: the voices of Taranaki itself," says Raphael.
Through two-part co-creative workshops, the participating choirs brainstormed and then refined their ideas, identifying lyrical themes and melodic fragments, which Raphael then synthesised in his studio in Fitzroy into finished compositions. These were recorded and shared digitally for the choir members to practise - in the car, in the shower, and in the garden, as well as together in their rehearsal rooms in the leadup to the performances.
