A tumultuous year brought about some wonderful successes.

We will certainly look back on 2020 as a year of new challenges! However, in spite of the difficulties faced by us all, the young musicians of the Burnside High School Music Department, under the leadership of our inspirational team of staff, rose to meet these challenges head on and produced another highly successful year of music making with so many highlights along the way. Details follow below but I would like to take this opportunity to record huge thanks to the following people who make all this possible:

· All the itinerant teachers and private music tutors who work with the students to prepare them for performances. Too many to list here!

· Our SMP tutors: Carlo Ballara, Michael Lawrence, Thomas Eves, Karl Margevka, John Robinson, Lois Johnston and Neill Pickard for their expertise in drawing the very best from our top young musicians.

· All our Chamber Music Tutors for the work they did preparing groups for the contest, again too many to list here.

· Charlotte Ensor, Arts Coordinator, and Jane Doig, Music Librarian for their outstanding administrative support.

· Vanessa Sandes, HOF Arts, and the members of the Senior Leadership Team for their unfailing support of the Music Department and the special significance it has within the school, and Patrick Shepherd, President of the Specialist Music Programme.

· To all the students who have contributed to the department this year, both in class and in co-curricular activity. The resilience and perseverance you have shown this year, against the odds, has been truly inspirational and the rewards are plain to see.

· And finally to the Burnside Music Department teaching staff: Cain Hood, Cameron Oswin, Helen Renaud and Rachel Balchin for their tireless efforts throughout such a challenging year, expertise in pushing our students to achieve excellence in all they do and their unfailing collegiality and support for one another. This is a very special team indeed.

To all students who are leaving us this year, you take with you the very best wishes of the Music Department team in all that you do in the future – never forget the part that you played within our very special community and do stay in touch.

I wish you all a safe and happy holiday break and look forward to starting all over again in 2021.

Chris Petch

HOD Music

A Summary of the Musical Year…

The year began smoothly with the Choir and Chamber Music weekends going ahead in early March. As news of Covid-19 began to appear, the Living Springs Instrumental and Contemporary Camps, while no longer able to occur in a residential capacity, were able to provide a day of workshops with invited tutors.

Over lockdown, several groups continued to work remotely towards their performances, including the Chamber Groups who performed the first concert post-lockdown on June 25 to record their entries for the Chamber Music contest. Many of these groups were awarded for their efforts, and two of them (The Sonderhausen Trio and The Mosa'ati Quartet) were selected to later attend the National Finals in Wellington in August.

The new alert level restrictions did make for some changes needing to be made around various events, including limiting audience numbers or livestreaming performances. However, despite this, several concerts and contests did manage to proceed. This included the Jazz quest contests for combos and large ensembles which went ahead in August. Burnside was highly successful in both (full results below). The Jazz Programme was also able to put together a showcase of Jazz and Contemporary music at the end of Term 3.

Members of the Specialist Music Programme Strings class put on a special performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons to a small audience at The Piano on September 1st with featured soloists from Year 13: Angie Park, Ashley Leng, Lakisha Cox and Jennifer Shin.

The largest ensembles had to wait until alert levels dropped to be able to perform, and were almost unable to compete in the Christchurch Wind Festival due to restrictions. However, both the Junior Concert Band and Symphonic Band were able to compete and both came away with significant prizes. The Orchestra was also thankfully able to have their highly anticipated annual showcase at the end of Term 3 when the alert level dropped back to 1.

While Big Sing was cancelled, the choirs did get to perform twice this year. The first was in August, when they performed to each other in the Aurora Centre and to a live audience on YouTube. Then in Term 4, they came together with a live audience at St Mary's Pro Cathedral.

Term 4 had the second annual Music Awards, in which the successes and continued service to music from this year's musical students were recognised. The award-winning Funk Band and SMP Jazz Combo 3 along with the Chamber Orchestra filled the night with music, and inspiring speeches were heard from both Principal Phil Holstein and successful alumni Benjamin Morrison.

A record number of Year 13 students (18) entered for NZQA Scholarship Music in 2020 and presented a series of outstanding recitals at The Piano.

A first for 2020: as a means of saying farewell, several SMP Jazz students came together to perform two final concerts in inner city venues the weekend after the Year 13s graduated.

The last event of the year was the Junior Showcase, where all of the Junior Ensembles, along with invited ensembles from Westburn School came together to perform the works they had been learning throughout the year; a great way to end the year.

National Selections:

· Stephen Mosa’ati and Lewis Grey were both selected for the NZSO National Youth Orchestra

· Lila Nicholson and Bella Hopkins were both selected for the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Choir, now under the direction of our very own Sue Densem.

· Caleb Langford, Charlotte Panckhurst, Lena Krakowiak, Sho Woodhouse, Vica Maznitsyna, Ocean Faloon-Cavendar, Elisa Bird, Jayon Thomas, Joshua Langford, E Wen Wong and Jazmyn Higgs were all selected for the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Symphony Orchestra

Lewis Grey (Year 13) and Claudia Crosland (left BHS in 2018) were selected as interns with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and performed with the CSO at the final Masterworks concert of the year under the baton of Chief Conductor Benjamin Northey.

2020 CONTEST RESULTS

CHAMBER MUSIC

KBB Award Winners:
The Wong Twio (E Wen Wong, Sarah Kim, Lana Donaldson)
The Liebert Trio (Francie Liebert, Indy Williamson, Irene Kim)
The Mosa'ati Quartet (Stephen Mosa'ati, Dylan Jonkers, Sho Woodhouse, Hiromu Crosada)

Highly Commended:
238 (Ashley Leng, Oscar Chin, Benjamin Davey)
Crvena (Emica Taylor, Lewis Grey, Sung Min Oh)
Sonderhausen Trio (Emily Scott, Elisa Bird, Anne Jeong)
Zmienic (Angie Park, Jennifer Shin, Lakisha Cox, Karen Huang)

Selected for Regional Finals (National Bronze Award Winners)

6 of the 12 South Island groups selected were from BHS:
238
Crvena
Sonderhausen Trio
Zmienic
The Liebert Trio
The Mosa'ati Quartet

National Finalists - both awarded Silver
The Mosa'ati Trio and Sonderhausen Trio

Also, a special mention to Juliette Ma who played in a group with students of St Andrew’s College and won a National Gold Award.

JAZZQUEST

SMP Combo 3: Stephen Mosa'ati, Ryan Bell, Dylan Jonkers, Jackson Wills, Sam Turner, Betty Barouni, Keira Jonkers - Gold Award, also Stephen took the Best Trumpet award and Keira Best Vocalist

SMP Combo 4: William Kao, Mahgen Clark, Sho Woodhouse, Daniel Sinclair, Finn McLachlan, Nic Ryan - Silver Award

SMP Combo 5: Dylan Blundell, Oscar Fischer, Emma Gibson, Emma Suzana, Johanna Robson, Jacob Mullen - Silver Award

SMP Combo 6: Jayden McIlroy, Adam Nicholl, Pip Goomes, Monet Schutte, Raph Shephard, Hendrix Tavai, Ava Donaldson - Silver Award

BHS Funk Band - Best Ensemble and Gold Award.

BHS Big Band - Best Big Band and Gold Award.

BHS Junior Jazz Ensemble - Gold Award

CHRISTCHURCH WIND FESTIVAL

Symphonic Band - Best Concert Band and Gold Award

Junior Concert Band - Best Clarinet Section and Gold Award

ROCKQUEST

Musicianship Award - Josi Hamill

Rockshop Award and 2nd Place Solo - Keira Jonkers

2nd Place Band - 3D Howls (Dylan Blundell, Oscar Fischer, Dylan Jonkers, Samuel Kennedy, Lena Krakowiak, Hiromu Crosado, William Kao, Daniel Sinclair)

PLAY IT STRANGE SONGWRITING COMPETITION

National Finalist - Monet Schutte

NZSM JAZZ IMPROVISATION CONTEST

National Finalist - Samuel Turner

Major Music Award Winners 2020

The Fiona McKay Cup for Vocal Performance – Emily Scott

Principal’s Trophy for Contemporary Music – Ryan Bell

Principal’s Trophy for Composition – Lewis Grey

Jean Cumming Cup for Contribution to Choral Music – Anne Jeong

Smokefree Cup for Leadership in Music – Ashley Leng

Mary Travers Award for Performance Music – Keira Jonkers

1976 School Council Cup for Contribution to Instrumental Music – Stephen Mosa’ati

1976 School Council Cup for Contribution to Music – Robert Gaudin

Peter Rowe Cup for Musicianship – Emica Taylor