Arts & Culture News

Results

• Coco Connolly Acknowledgement of Participation - Mystery Box
• Lucy Vergeest Acknowledgement of Participation - Mystery Box
• Emma Fletcher Merit - Mystery Box
• Boh Gaddum Merit - Mystery Box
• Georgie Irvine Merit - Mystery Box
• Brooke Laws Merit - Mystery Box
• Eva Conlon Bronze - Mystery Box
• Isla Finlay Bronze - Cup Cakes
• Lizzy Foy Bronze - Mystery Box
• Poppy Hancock Bronze - Cup Cakes; Bronze - Mystery Box
• Bianca Hosking Bronze - Mystery Box
• Lucy McLean-Bluck Bronze - Cup Cakes
• Charli Murphy Bronze - Mystery Box
• Rosie Savage Bronze - Mystery Box
• Lily Simmons Bronze - Cup Cakes
• Isla Stephens Bronze - Mystery Box
• Fleur Street Bronze - Mystery Box
• Ayla-Rose Thomson Bronze - Mystery Box
• Maddy Basel Bronze - Smoothie/Frappe/Iced Teas; Silver - Barista
• Freya Beere Silver - Cup Cakes
• Emily Bourke Bronze - Creative Burger; Bronze - Cup Cakes; Bronze - Mystery Box; Silver - Chicken Dish; Silver - Creative Savoury Pizza
• Emily Powell Silver - Creative Burger
• Greer Enersen Bronze - Smoothie/Frappe/Iced Teas; Silver - Barista
• Lucy Ferris Bronze - Mystery Box; Silver - Creative Savoury Pizza
• Eleanor Flintoff-Baker Silver - Creative Table Setting
• Polly Hunter Silver - Cup Cakes
• Kaylee Irvin Bronze - Savoury Pie; Silver - Chicken Dish
• Lily Priscott Bronze - Chicken Dish; Bronze - Creative Burger; Bronze - Cup Cakes; Bronze - Mystery Box; Silver - Creative Savoury Pizza
• Annabel Usher Silver - Creative Table Setting
• Louise Whitaker Silver - Mystery Box
• Sophie Wright Silver - Café Cake
• Natalie Carter Gold - Healthy Lunch
• Kate Heatley Silver - Café Cake; Gold - Dessert
• Olivia Mackay Silver - Mystery Box; Gold - Cup Cakes
• Sophie Morgans Gold - Cold Dessert
• Leah Owens Gold - Healthy Lunch

Many thanks to Mrs Knott and Mrs Fox for all their hard work in the event's lead-up, Mrs Martin's support, and the many family members and friends who were excellent taste testers! 

Check out photos from the event here.

The New Zealand Secondary Students Choir

Year 12's Kezia Schuitemaker is a New Zealand Secondary Students Choir member. This choir meets together every term break for two years with the aim of finishing with an overseas tour. Kezia comments below on her time with the choir.

The New Zealand Secondary Students Choir just had their second course together. They met up for the first time in Wellington during the first week of the April holidays, and this time the location of choice was Auckland, and our venue was Saint Kentigern College.

We learnt songs and combined them with the full choir and piano during this course. My favourite part was when we were split into groups of 8-10, with two of each part. We sang different madrigals, which is a type of music from the Renaissance period (1400 to 1600), which are sung a cappella (just voices). This was quite challenging but very rewarding once it finally came together. I enjoyed watching all the other groups perform their madrigals because all of them were quite different.

On the fifth day, we were honoured to have the Puanaki Whānau help us with a couple of songs that they wrote, and the NZSSC’s Assistant Director and Collaborative Pianist, Brent Stuart, engraved this. The Puanaki Whānau are very influential in the musical world, and they wrote the well-known Ka Waiata Ki A Maria and many other Māori waiata. We spent a whole day with them, starting with a Powhiri to welcome them, and then the Puanaki Whānau added their magic to our waiata, Kahu Atangatanga. Next course, we will be fortunate to have the Puanaki Whānau come to help us again.

My favourite part of this course was our first concert. We got our full uniform and sang a few songs. We had an open rehearsal and a concert. Not only that, but we sang different songs for each event. The room was filled, and it was a great first concert. 

Orchestra

On 19 July, the Dio Orchestra had a workshop with David Squire - Musical Director of the New Zealand Youth Choir, Musical Director of Westlake Symphony Orchestra and Westlake Boy’s Choir, Voicemale. We were fortunate to have him work with us to prepare for the KBB Music Festival in Auckland on August 8.

Dance

Over the school holidays, there were a number of Dio students competing at various competitions throughout the Waikato. We are very impressed with their efforts; the results are listed below.

Hamilton Competitions Society

Kaitlin Thorrold: 1st Adjudicator’s Choice Jazz, Impromptu Jazz, Own Choreography. 2nd Lyrical, Latin American Tap. 3rd Jazz, Musical Theatre, Impromptu Tap. VHC Contemporary, Waltz Tap, Speed Tap, Tap Solo. Most Promising Local Jazz Competitor Over 12, Jazz Scholarship Over 16, Best Local Tap Solo Over 12.

Mikayla Thorrold: 1st Restricted Slow Tap. 3rd Restricted Lyrical, Restricted Latin American Tap. VHC Restricted Musical Theatre, Musical Theatre, Slow Tap, Latin American Tap. HC Lyrical, Impromptu Jazz, Impromptu Tap. C Restricted Jazz, Jazz, Tap Solo.

Reitu Kukutai-Wilson: 1st Restricted Demi Character, 2nd Impromptu Classical, Restricted Neo-Classical. 3rd Barefoot, Impromptu Barefoot, Neo-Classical. VHC Lyrical, Jazz, Contemporary, Impromptu Jazz, Classical Ballet. HC Demi Character. C National. Love of Dance Award, Most Outstanding Local Ballet Item Overall.

Claire McKelvie: 3rd Restricted Jazz. VHC Restricted Contemporary. HC Contemporary.

Imbi Crossland: 3rd Restricted Pointe. C Lyrical

Tarin Tootil: 1st Restricted Hip Hop, 3rd Hip Hop, VHC Jazz

Bailee Horan: VHC Restricted Jazz. HC Jazz

Emjay Furniss: 1st Restricted Classical, 2nd Restricted Pointe, VHC Restricted Lyrical, Classical Ballet. HC Lyrical. C Lyrical

Velocity Dance Competition

Kaitlin Thorrold: 1st Tap. 2nd Musical Theatre, Open, Fast Track. 3rd Own Choreography. HM Lyrical, Jazz, Contemporary.

The annual dance showcase is happening tomorrow night (1 August) and Wednesday night (2 August) in the Nancy Light Hall. Good luck to all the students involved. We know you’ll put on a fantastic show.

Debating 

Our Senior Premier teams have never been in the premier grade before and have given it their all, which is fantastic to see. The final rounds for entry into the semi-finals were on Saturday, 24 June. Although none of our teams made it into the semi-finals, they only missed out by a very narrow margin, with WDSG 4 - Sarah Hilton, Julia Sharratt, and Brooke Manderson - only missing out by speaker points with four wins overall.

Our Senior Open teams have completed all of their pre-debates and made a massive effort at their three-round Saturday competition, though unfortunately, they missed out on qualifying.

The Junior teams have had five debates. Every one of our teams is learning more about how to debate and is improving every round. After five rounds, WDSG 4 (Ruby Parham, Libby Zhou, Josie Lee, Sophie Shen, and Isabella Wang) have qualified third and are competing in the Junior Novice Semi-Finals on 3 August, and WDSG No Sympathy only narrowly missed out on qualifying due to speaker points.

Some of our seniors have signed up as adjudicators for the junior debates. They have enjoyed the challenge it presents and have learnt a lot about how to structure their arguments, what should be included, and how they can improve overall.

On 30 July was the annual Deakin Cup, where teams of two had 5 minutes to prepare their five-minute arguments. Seniors Hunter Jones and Bonnie Feng took part. They got to debate many different schools and even debated the year 13 prems team (one of them is in the Waikato Debating team). They won two out of four debates and placed pretty well, but only two teams got into the finals. 

Visual Arts

Students in visual art and design classes are making excellent progress in filling up their boards for the year based on their themes. Level 1 and Level 2 students must fill up two A1 boards, while Level 3 students must create enough artwork and designs for three A1 boards. This is an extraordinarily time-consuming and impressive endeavour for all of these students!

The Digital Design and Innovation (DDI) students are on track to successfully creating their unique technological outcomes ranging from an animated online game to a fully functioning mechanical finger!

In Design and Visual Communication (DVC), Level 1 students are designing off-the-grid houses, Level 2 students are designing churches, and Level 3 students are working on their projects ranging from libraries and juice bars to designing housing units that take advantage of dead space in overpopulated cities.

Fashion and Design students in Level One are creating novelty bags, including some designs on jukebox handbags and ‘hand’ and ‘ham’ bags. Level 2 students are designing and creating decade-inspired works with themes from history's most iconic years. Level 3 students are progressing with their individual and original themes, from architecture and desert-inspired designs to fantasy designs. Incredible work, students!

Vocal Music 

Bel Suono is our school’s auditioned competition choir, directed by Mrs Colvin and accompanied by Angela Smith. Before school started this year, Bel Suono began to learn their competition repertoire at their annual choir camp. Bel Suono has been working hard ever since, with weekly after-school rehearsals, vocal technique sectionals with Voice Coach Jane Tankersley each Thursday, workshops with experts Rowan Johnstone and Elise Bradley and a few performances. All this work has been done to prepare to compete at the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Big Sing regional competition on 15 June. After all of the hard work, Bel Suono performed beautifully in their competition. They performed a classical piece, The Moon is Distant From the Sea, and Ritmo, a Spanish piece about Rhythm and an exciting musical theatre piece, New York, New York. 

Bel Suono returned with one of two highly commended awards and the overall Excel Cup for best choir. Also, Bel Suono was awarded the best New Zealand piece for the beautiful The Moon is Distant From the Sea. 

We would like to thank the families, friends, band and fantastic staff who travelled all the way to Tauranga to accompany and support our choirs. It was amazing to hear that all of these efforts have allowed Bel Suono to be invited to the National Finale concert this year for the second time! 

With Finale gala concert tickets having sold very quickly, it's important to note that there will be a big sing finale livestream up, so you can support our students through their performances if you were unable to get tickets. The students are excitedly awaiting to compete in this year's Finale Competition and would love support from our Dio Whaanau!

Cantiamo is our school’s chapel choir, conducted by Mrs Colvin and accompanied by Angela Smith. Cantiamo got off to a fantastic start, practising for 45 minutes every Monday afternoon to prepare for The Waikato-Bay of Plenty Big Sing Regional Competition. After all of their hard work, Cantiamo performed well with the pieces Festival Sanctus, May the Road Rise up to Meet You - composed by their talented accompanist, Mrs Angela Smith and Praise His Holy Name. Their performance saw them awarded one of only two Highly Commended Awards. Cantiamo will finish the year with their weekly rehearsals leading up to their St Peter’s Cathedral Service on Sunday, 13 August, and then rehearsals for our annual Carol Service in December.

Espresso Barbershop Chorus, directed by Mrs Jane Martin, has been off to a great start with weekly practices every Tuesday.  The group has been preparing to perform at their regional competition this year on the 9 June with the two pieces You’ll Never Walk Alone and Razzle Dazzle. This has been very exciting as this is the first regional competition held since 2021 due to Covid-19. 

Espresso’s performance was amazing with everyone giving it their all. They came away with high scores and third place in the upper voices category. Their high scores have gotten them an invitation to compete in the national Young Singers in Harmony competition which will be held in Auckland on 13 September, giving them something exciting to look forward to!

As well as the Espresso chorus, our school had two competing quartets this year, Dolcelatte and Piccolo. Both performed amazingly and also came away with an invitation to compete at the national competition!

Over the holidays, Addison Kenyon placed 2nd for both Musical Theatre and Own Choice in her age group for the Hamilton Competition Society Vocal awards! Congratulations, Addison.