Held in the beautiful interior of St Matthews-in-the-City, on a day when sunlight poured through the stained glass windows, the Boys’ School choirs, along with choristers from the College, presented a fabulous Sunday afternoon of song yesterday.

The music programme at the Boys’ School has a well-deserved reputation with a large number of boys involved in both instrumental and choral work. Yesterday was the turn of the choirs to present a dedicated concert.

There are over 100 boys involved in the choral programme, split between the Saint Kentigern Singers and the Performers’ Choir. All 100 opened the concert with a Maori welcome followed by the Lord’s Prayer accompanied on the organ.

The Saint Kentigern Singers is an all-comers choir of 60 students mostly in Years 4 and 5, with a smaller group of senior boys who assist in the smooth running of rehearsals and help the younger boys to learn their parts. The concert was the first time that this younger choir has performed outside the school context and they certainly stepped up to the challenge with their programme of  sacred pieces, moving on to finish with two contemporary, upbeat songs, Walt Disney’s ‘The Bare Necessities’ and Gershwin’s ‘I’ve got Rhythm.’ 

Jack Webber is well remembered for his cheeky role of Timon, the meerkat, in last term’s performance of The Lion King. Yesterday, Jack gave a very confident solo recital of ‘Consider Yourself’ from Oliver. I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of Jack! 

This followed with a short solo on the organ given by Tom Chatterton, the Director of Music at St Matthews. ‘Processional’ by Grayston Ives was an ideal selection, showcasing the range of  sounds from the organ.  

Guest singers for the afternoon were the Year 13 graduating members of the gold-award winning College choir, Kentoris. Some of these students have been singing together for five years – indeed, a number of the boys, who transitioned from the Boys’ School, have sung together for over a decade! This was a poignant moment for this group who were singing together for the last time. 

The Performers’ Choir is an auditioned group of top performing choristers at the School. They meet twice a week for rehearsals and work on complex three-part harmonies. They, too, sang a repertoire of sacred and contemporary pieces with the highlight, a new piece by New Zealand composer, David Hamilton, ‘Boys will be Boys.’ Written in 2016, our boys are one of the first choirs in the world to present it! Like the words of the song, the boys’ presentation was ‘full of mischief and fun!’ Mr Hamilton was in the audience and we thank him for his support. 

Principal, Mr Cassie closed the concert giving thanks to choir director, Mrs Emma Chatterton for the work she does with our boys. He thanked the boys graduating this year from Year 8 for their commitment over the years to performance, and for being role models for the younger students. 

Mr Cassie finished by saying, ‘Music is an international language. It doesn’t matter where you are, or what the language – you can feel the joy, the sorrow, the emotion of those who have chosen to sing, and you are carried along with them.’ 

This was a joyous afternoon of song!  Well done to all the students from the Boys’ School and the College.


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