It’s been a golden couple of weeks for music at St Cuthbert’s, with outstanding results across both instrumental and choral programmes.
KBB Festival
The recent KBB Festival was one for the history books for our music department — the best results since 2019. Sebastian Squad and Black Watch Orchestra both received Gold awards, with Black Watch Orchestra also taking home the trophy for Most Outstanding Performance of a Classical Work. Stage Band added a Silver to the tally, and Black Watch Winds earned a high Bronze.
Five students were also recognised for their individual musicianship at the KBB Festival Honours Concert: Sunny Chung (viola), Sophie Li (double bass), Ariel Liu (clarinet), Sasha Whitlock (trombone) and Chelsea Wu (vibraphone).
Choral Success
It’s also been a busy couple of weeks for our choral programme. Black Watch Singers competed at The Big Sing Cadenza Festival in Rotorua, earning a Wharauroa (Bronze). The adjudicator praised the choir’s energy and engaging repertoire choices, noting how invested every singer clearly was in being part of the group.
Saints Alive went on to compete at The Big Sing National Finale in Christchurch, where they were awarded a Gold, a world-class result, with international adjudicators describing the event as unique on the global stage.
A huge thank you to all the staff who worked tirelessly to get these ensembles to and from competitions, and to keep them in fine voice throughout.
What’s Next
The success continues next week, with Song Squad, Junior Saints Alive and Junior Black Watch Singers all performing at The Kids Sing at the Auckland Town Hall. We wish them the very best!
