I think it’s fair to say that it has been another very successful year for our Logan Park school choir! 

After quickly running through auditions and early meetings during the first couple of weeks of Term 1, we established that we were going to have an amazing sound this year.

The highlight for the majority of the choir (and the rest of the music department) is definitely the annual music camp and this year certainly did not disappoint! Alongside the delicious food, awesome music and everyone’s favourite, the music concert - we were able to kickstart our pieces for the rest of the year and form a connection with all of the new choir members, which is the main reason behind music camp. Ms Fahy came prepared with an amazing selection of music and very quickly we were underway with our repertoire.

It is always extremely rewarding coming back to school and hearing our pieces coming together so we can begin to perform for everyone. For the Big Sing we chose “16 Tons” for our contemporary piece, “Now is the Month of Maying” for our classical and the iconic “Nga Iwi E” for the NZ composition category. With help from Miss Fahy and Sara Brown we went off to the regional Big Sing competition in June and were commended for our amazing performance. The Big Sing competition is the perfect opportunity to push our little choir out of our comfort zone. Other than performing once in an assembly, we hadn’t had any other opportunities to show people outside of our choir our arrangements from this year. It is always very intimidating performing in front of over 20 schools, but it is really beneficial to be able to compare ourselves with other choirs in order to see how we can improve for further competitions. It is also a great way to show off all of our hard work from the year so far which is why we were so stoked to win an award for the first time in an embarrassingly large number of years!

After the Big Sing competition we had just under three months to prepare for the Otago Secondary School’s Music Festival in September. The festival is an opportunity for all choir students, jazz band and orchestra students to work together and perform for the wider Dunedin community. Despite most students being annoyed by the song choices, we reluctantly put that behind us and practiced the three pieces (“You’ve Got a Friend” by Carol King, “Lion King Medley” and “Benedictus”). However, the festival actually came as a really nice surprise as it was filled with amazing music and it was a great way to interact with other Dunedin choirs. Recently our choir worked on a new piece for the senior prize-giving in early November. Being able to perform for our school and families is the best way to celebrate and end a very successful year for the Logan Park Choir.

Overall, the choir this year has really blossomed into what is a really amazing group. Yet again it has been a privilege to attend practices every Monday and Friday and to be under the wing of the amazing Hana Fahy as our teacher and conductor. I would highly suggest anyone who has a passion for singing to get involved in the Logan Park choir as it opens up so many fun opportunities for your school year.