A favoured event on the College calendar, this year’s House Music was declared a resounding success! Having outgrown Elliot Hall and the Town Hall, the event was moved to the 3000 capacity Vodafone Pacific Events Centre in Manukau. There was scarcely a spare seat in the arena as the College community came together to hear and cheer the House Choirs and Ensembles as they vied for the coveted House Music Cup.

The move to the larger venue also meant that the Houses could put forward bigger choirs of up to 200 apiece allowing for even greater student involvement.

MC for the evening, Head of Music, Mr Ross Gerritsen welcomed the judges, Mr Tim Beveridge and Don McGlashen. Tim Beveridge, a regular at Saint Kentigern music events, is best known for playing the title role in the Phantom of the Opera and is an ‘authority’ on stage presentation and singing. Don McGlashen is quite simply a legend in New Zealand music and we’re grateful for his support once again at House Music, having previously been a judge in 2007.

As May is NZ Music Month, all the choirs were required to select a song from a prescribed list of NZ songs as supplied by the Head of Music. Bruce House sang, ‘Don’t dream it’s over;’ Hamilton sang, ‘Why does love do this to me;’ ‘Weather with you’ was Wishart’s selection, ‘Say Goodbye’ was Chalmers’ and Cargill chose ‘A Slice of Heaven.’

With such large choirs, musicality and tonality can be a wee bit of an issue! Mr Gerritsen reminded the choirs that they were being judged by set criteria and it was Hamilton House that ticked all the right boxes to place 1st.

Following the choirs, the House Ensembles stepped up to the stage, once again proving the enormous depth of musical talent and stage confidence amongst our students. Cargill were the winners on the night with an amazing lead performance from Saint Kentigern’s ‘big voice,’ Manase Latu. We usually hear Manase’s rich tenor sing operatic numbers but he proved that he is just as adept with rock and Latino!

The final act for the evening came from our guest judge, Don McGlashen, who was joined by a 17 piece Saint Kentigern backing band of instrumentalists and vocalists for his iconic pieces, ‘Bathe in the River’ and ‘Anchor Me.’ We are grateful to Don for affording our students this opportunity to play with a professional as well as attending rehearsal time with them.
And so it was left to the judges to announce the overall House Cup. With a second in the Choir and a first in the House Band, Cargill were declared the overall winners.

Don concluded by saying that it was heartening to see so much support for music in a school and that if this was the future of New Zealand music, then New Zealand music is definitely in good hands!

House Choir
1st Hamilton
2nd Cargill
3rd Wishart

House Ensembles
1st Cargill
2nd Wishart
3rd Bruce House

Overall
1st Cargill
2nd Wishart
3rd Hamilton

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