Kavinda Herath/Stuff
Southland Girls’ High School Choir, Femme, and directors Sarah Rae and Peter de Blois, are heading to the Big Sing nationals in August.
Southland Girls’ High School choir Femme have been selected for the national Big Sing competition in Auckland, one of only three choirs from the South Island to make the cut after regional competitions.
Femme co-director Sarah Rae said this was not the first year a Southland Girls’ High School choir had been selected for nationals, but this was the first year a choir from the school had taken four regional awards home.
“It is pretty exciting because for seven of our girls, it will be there first time going to Nationals,” Rae said.
“But getting four awards, that is a big deal.”
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The choir took home the best performance of a New Zealand composition, the best performance in choral art music (non New Zealand), the best performance open choice and TBS Southland region the best performance of a piece in Te Reo Māori, she said.
“It is really exiting that we took home the award for the best te reo performance as this was the first year it was incorporated,” she said.
Rae said heading to nationals was a “big deal”, and the choir was the only representative from the deep south – the other two qualifying South Island choirs being from Christchurch.
“It was really special for us to be selected because a lot of those schools in bigger cities, they have choral directors and that is their job, they lead choirs, multiple at once,” she said.
Kavinda Herath/Stuff
Southland Girls’ High School Choir, Femme, and directors Peter de Blois and Sarah Rae.
“But here, for Peter and I, we do it, not as teachers in a classroom but as an extra to our job.
“It is nice we are holding our ground in the deep South.”
The choir was now preparing to fundraise for the trip north to the Big Sing Finale at the end of August.
“We will be doing our usual croissants, as that seems to be our best fundraiser, and we want to make sure we keep the costs down as much as we can,” Rae said.
“It has been a busy term for the girls, so they are now on break having a rest and rehearsing from home.”
