Meri Kirihimete from Music!

What a year…
It is hard to believe we are already at the end of 2024 but it is amazing to look back and see how much music we have crammed into this year! We are lucky to have the most talented kiddies in the country in our department and they have done us so proud of this year. Some of their successes include:

• Our brand new Musical Theatre Ensemble performing at the Big Sing
• 11 bands and 1 duo in Smokefree Rockquest regional heats, 5 bands in the regional finals and BUZZ making the national final second year running!
• Henri Woodley making the vocal solo final of Stand Up Stand Out (SUSO)
• Cy Jones winning Best Melodic Production at SUSO Electronic
• Henri Woodley and Atawhai Te Maapi Pene making the national finals for Play It Strange songwriting competitions and getting their songs professionally recorded (more details later)

We have also had some great events and visitors:

• Music Month madness – lunchtimes gigs and events
• Rap&Beats workshop with Pat Tafa and Ben Tuimaseve
• Songwriting workshops with Keria
• Universal Music Group visit
• Fan Camp launch with Joel Little and Big Fan (we made the news!)
• Our first lunchtime rap gig at the canteen with Benaiah Su and Kenny He
• Vocal and Instrumental Showcase concerts in Term 3
• NCEA Performance evenings
• Year 13 showcase medley in the prizegiving

Our Play It Strange finalists, Henri Woodley and Atawhai Te Maapi Pene, had a brilliant time recording their tracks with Jacob Browne and they are officially being released to the public! Henri’s track Fade is out now on Spotify and Atawhai’s track Karma’s Got the Gun should be up before Christmas. Search their names and enjoy!!  

And a giant thank you and shout out to Andrew Isdale, our guitar, music tech and band mentoring itinerant teacher who has finished teaching to pursue music full time as a producer, sound engineer, musician and saxophonist for Katchafire. He is so talented and we can’t wait to get him back in for some workshops.

2025 is coming this way…
You will be delighted to know that we are already booking dates for music events for you to come and enjoy next year. First off the rank will be our teeny, tiny, itsy bitsy, taste-tester of a musical at the start of term 2 so watch out for the emails asking for people to be involved. We will also be returning to the Big Sing and KBB Festival with our groups which anyone can join.

Students have already started asking about instrument and vocal lessons for next year. Just make sure you are checking your emails at the start of February as the application forms will be out then for 2025 lessons. We will also let you know when our amazing music groups start back up again (and maybe some new ones!).

In the meantime there is always the music department website for all the information you need.

And finally…
This is the very sad time of year when we have to farewell our senior babies who head off into the world. You have all been brilliant (and exhausting!) and we are so proud of the musicians you have become. So many of you are heading off to study music and/or audio engineering at tertiary institutions, or just make your own music and release it and we can’t wait to see what you will do in the future. Keep in touch. KAKITES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!