Music News

St Hilda’s students Hannah Lawrence, Sylvie Harper, and Gabrielle Chisholm who performed at the Country Music Dunedin Awards Country Beats Concert. The concert was a non-competitive concert to showcase local talent in country music.

CMDA — Image by: Isla Huffadine

This year, due to Covid-19, Rockquest ran an online video competition rather than their usual nationwide live events. The online format allowed our students to engage in a celebration of original youth music.

We had two bands enter, Fire Escape and Better Than Us. Fire Escape consists of Darcia Heath (drums), Madaline Homer (guitar), Thanuja Luxmanan (vocals), Katie Moore (bass), Lydia Tumaru (keyboard), and performed their original song “Staying Afloat”. The band also had input from Holly Hesson and previous student Olivia Aide. Stranger Than Us consists of Helena Fitzgerald (guitar), Annika Marriner (vocals), Heidi Platt (vocals and guitar), alongside Ryan Kenton (drums) and Max Cunninghame (bass) from Otago Boys High School. They performed their two original songs “Runaway” and “Tears and Fights”.

Both bands performed superbly well in their video entries and have improved dramatically from the start of the year. They can be proud of themselves and it is clear that these students have a lot of potential for the coming years.

Fire Escape — Image by: Isla Huffadine
Better Than Us — Image by: Isla Huffadine