The Burnside High School Big Band and SMP Jazz Combos embarked on a week-long tour of the North Island, performing at the Manawatu Jazz Festival and the NZSM (Wellington) Jazz Festival

Tthey won a total of 19 separate awards, including Best Big Band and Best Combo at each festival, an outstanding achievement.

At the ARA Jazz Quest Combo Competition this success was repeated with SMP Combo 1 won “Best Combo” and a further five individual awards were won.

Dr Dave Lisik, Head of Jazz Theory and Composition at the New Zealand School of Music writes: “What this doesn’t illustrate, given that Burnside’s jazz groups routinely have successful individuals and groups winning awards, is how the Jazz Programme as a whole continues to improve. Huge congratulations to everyone!”

At the regional NZCF Big Sing competition, Burnside’s choirs were once again in the spotlight and received a number of coveted awards:

Junior Performance Choir

· Outstanding Recital by a Junior Choir

Aurora Voices

· Outstanding performance of a composition with a Maori or Pacifica text

· Outstanding performance of an Early Music composition

· Outstanding Recital by a Treble Choir

Bel Canto

· Outstanding Recital by a Girls’ Choir

Senior Chorale

· Outstanding performance of a New Zealand Composition

· Outstanding Recital by a Mixed Voice Choir

· University of Canterbury School of Music Award for best performance of a New Zealand work at the Big Sing Canterbury and West Coast competition 2018

Bel Canto and Senior Chorale have been selected for The National Big Sing Finale being held in Wellington in late August.

Burnside entered a total of 13 groups in the annual NZCT Chamber Music Contest this year, two of which were selected for the district, and subsequently, the regional final: RAQS (Hijiri Yamamoto, violin; Claudia Crosland, Alto Saxophone; Lixin Zhang, piano) and The Rota Trio (Ashley Leng, violin; Emica Taylor, flute; Tetsuya Yamada, piano). Maggie Ma (cello) and Juliette Ma (violin), both Burnside students also featured in the final as part of a composite school group.

RAQS were successful in winning the Southern Regional Final overall, an outstanding achievement in this highly competitive contest.  They have since been selected for National finals being held in August.

The Mendelssohn Trio (Lily Doak, Samantha Chiang and Cherry Inazumi) won a KBB award at the District Final of the contest.

Congratulations to Year 13 student Lixin Zhang, winner of last year’s Wallace Piano Competition, on the release of his first CD recording on the Rattle record label and for the stunning CD launch concert he performed at The Piano Centre for Music and the Arts.

Finally, congratulations to Keira Jonkers (Year 11) and Dylan Jonkers (Year 9) for reaching the regional final of the RockQuest competition with their bands “Better than Bacon” and “Class Disruption”.

Term 3 sees the National final stages of all three competitions; best wishes to all students and staff involved.