June is always a very busy month for the Music Department with many of our major competitions occurring in this month.

Firstly, Stage band performed at the Manawatu Jazz Festival at Queen’s Birthday weekend as part of the school bands competition. The band was in fine form retaining the Best Manawatu band title and receiving best overall band. Also continuing his winning way was Joe Inman who gained the adjudicators award for best solo.

The regional Chamber Music Competition was held at the Spiers Centre on May 11. We were represented by String trio, Strings Attached which received a highly commended. Piano trio, Liszt Fan Club received the Best NZ Work and highly commended, and Brass Quintet, Honkers was awarded the KBB prize for the best bass/woodwind ensemble.

The regional Big Sing choral festival followed, with all-comers choir Son of a Pitch [SOAP] and chamber choir OK Chorale taking to the stage. Both choirs performed well. OK Chorale received the award for best a cappella [unaccompanied] performance and has been nominated to attend the Lower North Island Cadenza Festival. Unfortunately this clashes with the school ball, so they will not be attending the festival.

Finally in this competition round, Punk Band - Frantic and Fusion Band Argue competed at the Smokefree Rockquest regional competition. While neither band was placed, the event provided valuable performance experience.

But it’s not over yet….

In the last week of term the music department had an exchange with Westlake Boys' and Girls' schools, before we embark on our annual two day roadshow to contributing schools.

Looking ahead:

August 8-12 Stage band travels to Auckland to compete at the KBB Music festival.

August 17-18 The School Concert will showcase the range of talent that PNBHS has. We look forward to seeing you there.