This year in June - August, over 400 groups from around New Zealand competed in the 53rd NZCT Chamber Music contest.

This contest, organised by CMNZ, gave students the opportunity to perform music in groups within a live setting.

In Dunedin, 35 groups competed this year, with 14 groups consisting of LPHS students, either in entirety or in part. Many students used this competition for an NCEA group performance assessment, and as always the standard was extremely high across the board.

Groups with LPHS students that were awarded Highly Commended in this district final were;

· “The Quartet” (Cathy Zeng, Sophie Sun, Elia Hayashishita from LPHS, and Emmanuel Keane from Kings),

· “The Itty Bitty Small Band”(Hamish O’Malley-King, Colin Macandrew, Finn McKinlay, Alice Houston-Page, Abe Baillie, and Albert Baeumer) – (this group also winning a KBB award for wind playing!),

· “Wrong of Autumn” (Cameron Monteath from LPHS, and Rose McAuley Stevenson and Sarah de Vries from OGHS). This group also qualified as regional finalists (top 36 in NZ), and travelled to Christchurch for another performance in the competition.

“Uncharted Territory” (Lealia Devereux, Grace Cunningham, Piper McKerracher, Louis Freeman) also qualified as district finalists for their sax quartet performance.

A KBB award was also awarded to brass quartet “Hoonk!!” (Anna Denys, Connor Bedwell, Finn McKinlay and Colin Macandrew)

The award for the best performance of an original composition was awarded to “C^3” (Cameron Monteath and Cathy Zeng from LPHS and Catherine Davidson from St Hilda’s) for their performance of a Trio by Cameron.

The competition was a great opportunity for students to develop teamwork and performance skills, and proved to be an efficacious experience for all - congratulations to all the musicians who participated. Really looking forward to next year!