Simon Curnow shares the success of his South Island tour with the NZSSC.

For the first 10 days of the holidays, myself and 55 of the best New Zealand secondary school choristers gathered in Christchurch for the first 2023-24 New Zealand Secondary Students' Choir tour around the lower South Island.

After leaving the Year 12 formal, I came home to five students who were staying with me, fresh off the plane from Auckland and all eager for what was to come for the week. The first couple of days were spent at Christchurch Girls' High School and involved rehearsals and preparation for our concerts in Christchurch at St Mary’s pro Cathedral, Somerset Retirement Village in Avonhead, Timaru at Craighead Diocesan School, and Dunedin at St Paul’s Cathedral. While all the rehearsals at CGHS were long (going from 9:30am-9:30pm) we could tell that huge progress was being made from our previous courses in Wellington and Auckland.

It was awesome to have my own vocal teacher, Mrs Helen Charlton, come in as a guest vocal consultant for some of the time spent in Christchurch - thank you Mrs Charlton.

The amazing Puanaki Whānau also came in to help with kapa haka and singing for the two Māori waiata that they wrote, Tane Māhuta and Kahu Atangatanga. Along with gifting us their music, they also taught us Te Reo Māori and personally, having little to no major exposure to the culture and language, I feel so grateful to have been able to learn from three extraordinary, inspiring, and humble teachers. What they taught me in such a small amount of time makes me want to learn the language more.

He mihi maioha tēnei ki te whānau Puanaki mō o rātou aroha, o rātou tautoko ki tēnei kaupapa.

“Ma te huruhuru, ka rere te manu”

- Adorn the bird with feathers so it may fly.

We were thrilled to receive standing ovations at our concerts and the reactions from the public and The Press and Otago Daily Times, as well as the overall vibe, showed us that everyone loved the concerts.

“Excellent choral recital has exhilarating interpretation” - Otago Daily Times

“Rousing sound and action provided an excellent choral recital” - The Press

Next year involves much bigger tours and concerts, including our international tour which has finally been confirmed for July. The choir will travel for a month to Hobart, Tasmania, Sydney, Melbourne, Beijing China, and one more mystery stop to be announced next year.

I can’t stress enough how thankful I am to the St Bede’s community for their continued support of me in this journey. It was amazing to see so many staff and students there to support me for my Christchurch concert.

Thank you all so much for supporting me in something I love.