The latest news from our highly successful Music students.

[Play It Strange Songwriting Competition Success]

Our School of Music students shone again at the annual Play It Strange songwriting competition. Excellent artist and jazz band bassist, Caitlin Brown’s original song “Leave Your Head” and an original indie duo ‘Optical Inclusion’ consisting of Ben Ritchie and Leah Scott’s whimsical number “La Casa” have been chosen for this year’s top 40 for the Play It Strange songwriting competition. They will be recording the songs at a professional studio to consolidate their tracks. Such a solid effort from the three of them and we are very proud of their achievement.

[JazzQuest and Southern Jam Youth Jazz Competition]

Our biggest ever jazz band, the 18 piece ‘Hagley Big Band’ competed at the annual jazz competition, JazzQuest at Ara Music Arts on Saturday 3rd August. They performed well despite being the first band to perform, and only being together for six months. They received a Bronze Award, but it was only one point off obtaining a Silver Award.

The band then travelled to Blenheim on Tuesday 6th August to compete at the Southern Jam Youth Jazz Competition, and they received a Silver Award. They performed all five gigs beautifully and had many compliments from other schools and locals. Our highlights were on Friday night at the Woodburn Tavern, where all of the band members performed at their best and looked relaxed and professional. I want to thank Paul Dearsley, who has been playing tenor saxophone with us and has been inspiring all of us about the importance of practice. Thanks to Sue Kingham (Year 9 Joel’s mother) who cooked us completely gluten-free food. Thanks, Kris Bellam for being there for her daughters and for moral support; and lastly, Darryl the Arts Coordinator who was a fantastic travel companion and camp father! We all appreciated your sense of humour and delightful presence. The band has three more events this year, so if you have not seen our show, please come along to one of the events.

https://www.facebook.com/HagleyCollegeMusic/posts/2685694078110196

Our next music events are as follows.

Term 3:

Wednesday 21st August – Senior Music Students’ Movie Night at Hagley

Monday 16th September – Voices Festival at YMCA

Tuesday 17th September – Groups Night at Ara

Wednesday 25th September – Hagley on Show at Hope Presbyterian Church in Hornby

Term 4:

Friday 25th October to Monday 28th October – Big Band Festival in Christchurch