The beginning of term one; piles of new music, a sea of new faces, a calendar of new concerts. Another new Bel Canto.

The beginning of term one; piles of new music, a sea of new faces, a calendar of new concerts. Another new Bel Canto.

The Burnside High School Choral program is well known, both throughout New Zealand and the world for taking up new opportunities, achieving well and creating beautiful music. This year Bel Canto - 36 girls strong, was no exception. Our auditioned senior girls choir, conducted by the ever-talented Ms Sue Densem and accompanied by our very own Lana Donaldson, performed during the year at many events, competed at regional and national competitions, and had the privilege of attending once in a lifetime workshops with three highly esteemed musicians from around the world - Catrin Johnson, Jo Michael Scheibe and Andrew Withington.

This year Bel Canto competed in The Big Sing Competition, an epic, all effort journey lasting from the first rehearsal of the year in our well loved classroom M1, to the last day of Finale on the first of September - the Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington. Bel Canto performed mid June in the Big Sing regional competition, performing three songs; György Orbán’s The Sanctus and Benedictus, Erica Phare-Bergh’s Noël nouvelet and a new composition written for Bel Canto by David Hamilton - An Ariette for Music.

Three months onwards and our team of girls were in the spotlight of The Big Sing stage once again, this time; Finale style. Our performances included the Hungarian Táncnóta, and the southern hemisphere premiere of Kristopher Fulton’s Valkyrie - a peculiar and heart hammering work, written in Old Norse with an eight part split. Bel Canto, along with Senior Chorale won a Gold award for our performances. This was almost overlooked by our girls however when we were also presented with the prestigious Tour Time Trophy for the best performance of a classical work for our performance of Valkyrie! A memorable moment for the girls of Bel Canto in more ways than just one.

Moving onwards from the antics of The Big Sing and we head into our more event based performances. On September 13th Bel Canto had been invited by the prime minister - Jacinda Ardern, to perform at the 125th Anniversary of Women's Suffrage in New Zealand. We performed on the stage of the Isaac Theatre Royal in front of a full house with live streamed recordings, singing our Hungarian folk song and the traditional Wairua Tapu. It was a truly humbling performance, and all of us were grateful to be offered such an opportunity.

Bel Canto completed the year performing several pieces at the Choral Extravaganza, two of which were new; an interesting piece based on the original tale of the Little Mermaid, Deep Down in the Ocean by John Høybye, and the beautiful Love is a Rain of Diamonds by Gwyneth Walker.

This leads us to the beginning of term four; the gathering of lent out pencils and shared music from within a sea of people less like school peers and more like family, our completed calendars of concerts ingrained in our memories forever. I'm more than pleased to say that although we girls have defined Bel Canto, Bel Canto has shaped us. For the better? I believe so. A more amazing group of girls I could not find. What a blessing it is to be part of Bel Canto.