Students perform their hearts out

The contest is an iconic secondary school musical event, held annually, throughout the country. Across New Zealand, over 400 groups made up by approximately 1,500 students, entered this highly competitive contest which is in its 54th year.  

Michelle Kong (year 13), Chloe Park and Veronica Bailey (both year 12) made up the St Paul’s Beethoven Trio. They performed Trio Op 11 by Beethoven beautifully with Chloe on the clarinet, Veronica on the cello, and Michelle on the piano.

Matthew Chanwai and Scott Zhou (both year 9) were members of the Tri Parnya Trio which included Jared Ng, a student from Hamilton Boys’ High School. They performed a challenging and exciting piece, the Second Movement of Piano Trio by Taneyev, with Matthew on the cello, Scott on the piano and Jared on the violin. Their sensitive and gutsy performance earned them one of four Highly Commended awards in the Hamilton district round.

Subsequently, the boys were pleasantly surprised to find out their trio was selected to be one of 12 northern regional finalists. This was no mean feat, as the northern region includes Auckland, Northland, Bay of Plenty, Waikato and Taranaki districts.

This meant that Matthew and Scott received the Bronze award, being one of the top 36 groups in New Zealand. An excellent achievement, considering it was their first time entering this nationwide competition.