Last weekend saw Dio take out a total of 5 awards at the highly prestigious KBB competition.
The KBB Festival is now the largest youth music festival for instrumentalists in Australasia; the event runs over 5 days, more than 4,000 students from 50 high schools in the greater Auckland region participate and it is a huge undertaking for both students and staff. This year we had the largest cohort ever involved in the Festival – 150 Dio girls participating in five categories: Symphony, Chamber Orchestra, Concert Band, ConcorDio and JHS Concert Band
We were thrilled and honoured to be the only all-girls school (with the only female conductor) in the region to be represented in the Gala command performances on Saturday at the Holy Trinity Cathedral. The event was buzzing with excitement and packed to the gills as the best of Auckland school students performed their hearts out.
We went on to receive 5 awards – 1 Gold, 2 Silvers, 1 Bronze and 1 Commended.
We are particularly proud of the new junior groups who have entered the competition for the first time.
You can listen to some of the performances below:
Symphony Orchestra (dir. Shelagh Thomson) – Gold Award:
Chamber Orchestra (dir. Shelagh Thomson) – Silver Award:
Concert Band (dir. Andrew Uren) – Silver Award:
JHS Concert Band (dir. Jill Christoff) – Bronze Award:
ConcorDio Strings (dir. Loata Mahe) – Commended Award:
Each group had to prepare a 30 minute programme – and be responsible for their own stage management within this time. Our girls achieved this under the amazingly competent leadership of Year 13 student leaders Sharon Hung, Jacqui Li, Rebecca He, Doris Dong and Ling Hui – all of whom were truly professional and extremely organised.
A huge CONGRATULATIONS to all the girls who have worked hard out on difficult repertoire over the last term.
The standard of the top performing groups at the Gala was impressive – from Jazz Bands, Concert Bands to Chamber and Symphony orchestras.
