Honouring the jubilee of the Te Awamutu Competitions Society Annual Festival

Patrick Power ONZM. Photo/Supplied

2022 marks a very special anniversary - 75 years ago the Te Awamutu Competitions Society Annual Festival was established.

Since then many hundreds of speech, instrumental and vocal artists in the making have competed at various venues around the town.

"I have seen many children develop into accomplished performers," says life member Wendy Bain, who served as society president for 16 years and convener of the vocal section for many years.

"In the early days the competitions ran for a whole week, the town was full of people, there were different venues all around Te Awamutu and the administration was done by hand – there were no computers then."

New Zealand-born international opera singer Patrick Power ONZM was this year's adjudicator for the vocal section of the Te Awamutu competitions.

Patrick Power first came to Te Awamutu in the mid-70s to sing with Malvina Major in Handel's Messiah. The performance at Old St John's Anglican Church with Anthony Jennings at the organ was part of the town's Rosetown Festival.

Since then Patrick Power ONZM has had a distinguished professional career singing some 60 principal tenor roles in nine different languages for the leading opera houses and festivals in 15 different countries.

Following his performing career, Patrick was keen to share his considerable experience by training young singers.

Patrick, a man with a big voice and a bigger heart delights in assisting young New Zealand singers to achieve their dreams.

"Te Awamutu's vocal competitions were extremely well organised and a credit to vocal co-conveners Beatrice Hofer and Martha Ash and their team," Patrick said.

"It's also worth noting that there is a really good piano at St John's Anglican Church, which is not always the case."

Patrick loves to teach. His evaluation of the singers is specific, helpful and most of all encouraging and he doesn't hesitate to offer brief on-the-spot practical examples.

"There were some remarkable voices in the under 18 class that will bear watching in the future," he said. "Overall the quality of the singing reached a very high standard."

Performances of Puccini's opera Gianni Schicchi held just before the competitions meant several senior competitors studying at Waikato University's Conservatorium of Music were unavailable for this year's Te Awamutu comps.

The importance of New Zealand's competitions cannot be overlooked. They offer young singers an ideal opportunity to hone their craft and ready themselves for a career in music. Some venerable TA comps cups still being presented today come engraved with names recognised worldwide; those of Kiri Te Kanawa and Malvina Major being preeminent.

Later winners include local mezzo-soprano Katie Trigg, who recently left New Zealand to study voice at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in the US, and Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono, who performed in this year's Wellington Opera production of La Traviata and New Zealand Opera's Macbeth, both composed by Giuseppe Verdi.