Hillcrest High rates special mention Coming up:
Mentioned in Despatches:
In front of me, I have a list of performers and tutors/teachers from Hamilton’s Hillcrest High School. It is, of course, the unnamed subject of the entry in last week’s Reflections, and the awards were largely for classical music. In today’s profit-driven, media-dictated society, chamber music seems an unlikely source for the passion and dedication Hillcrest High School students display. It is at the other end of the music spectrum from the industrial role models who are described as modern ‘‘musicians’’ and who win Recording Academy awards called Grammys where even the organisation labels are designed by marketing experts. Just cast your eye over the Grammy website cover, and be afraid. Sadly, I have no room for a roll of honour even though the young musicians from Hillcrest warrant a chorus of congratulations. The musicians on the staff who develop and inspire them, however, deserve the city’s recognition. They include head of the music department Mervyn Cook, cellist Dr Martin Griffiths who oversees the chamber programmes at Hillcrest, music teacher Daniel Shin, and coaches from the University of Waikato Music Department – James Tennant, Katherine Austin, and Lara Hall. These are teachers who will never be forgotten by their pupils. Without their ilk, life would not even get to middle C. It would simply B flat. What: A Cappella Afternoon
Who: Waikato Rivertones and Stellar Singers
When: Sunday, June 24
Where: Dr John Gallagher Concert Chamber
First an apology. I cannot provide reliable references to individual performers in this concert, no matter how much they deserve recognition, as there was neither a printed programme nor programme notes. For aficionados of the barbershop genre, this may not have been a difficulty, and there were clearly members of the enthusiastic audience who just enjoyed what they heard. As a critic, then, I was slightly disconcerted when I first heard Elvis Presley’s hit
being described by the presenter as a ‘‘pentatonic’’ arrangement, before realising that this was a reference, not to a musical scale, but to a choral ensemble, the five singing members of Pentatonix. A cappella singing at that level demands such purity of sound, such accuracy of pitch, that singers need perfect concentration. The sound is central. It is the point of difference in performance. Modern barbershop groups, however, seem increasingly distracted by a demand for greater ‘‘choralography’’ at the expense of full focus on voice but the performance is always about sound, not image. I was also reminded that today’s host, the multi-award-winning Waikato Rivertones, is an ensemble capable of superb singing. Today, the camaraderie and enjoyment of its members was obvious. The quality of individual voices was equally apparent, as it was with the guest ensemble, Auckland’s Stellar Singers. That on this occasion the performance, both choralographic and vocal, felt just a little under-rehearsed was, I am certain, simply an aberration. It happens. I am really looking forward to the next concert. What: Sister Act
Who: The Hamilton Operatic Society
When: Thursday June, 28. Season: June 23 – July 7
Where: Clarence St Theatre
Director: David Sidwell
Musical director: Nick Brae
Choreographer: Sonja McGirr-Garrett
Musical Theatre is considered by the illinformed and sniffy to be lightweight stuff. A night with David Sidwell and his merry band would show them otherwise, and very smartly. Pace and energy were on from the moment the orchestra/band struck up in the pit. That’s right. Sidwell’s shows still use live music, and he is meticulous about the ensembles he forms. His musicians, or more correctly, Nick Brae’s musicians, are top drawer, play like jazz addicts with the loose sensitivity of late-night riffs and moody ❚ July 1-5 at Southwell Performing Arts Centre, 200 Peachgrove Rd, St Paul’s Collegiate School presents Legally Blonde The Musical.
❚ June 23-July 7 at Clarence St Theatre Hamilton Operatic Society presents Sister Act
❚ July 3-4, 7pm at The Meteor Theatre Rutene Spooner in Super Hugh-Man! ‘‘. . . a musical love letter to Hugh Jackman’’
❚ Sunday, July 8, at 2pm at St Andrew’s Church Cambridge, The New Zealand Male Voice Choir with Male Voices Waikato
❚ Monday, July 9 at 6.30pm then 8pm at Clarence St Theatre, the Royal New Zealand Ballet dances Tutus on Tour.
harmonics, but with a polish one expects from experienced classical musicians – and they understand their music. Huzzah! That foundation supported a cast which deserves individual plaudits. Performances like those of lead Monique Clementson as Deloris, and Gwen Lyon as Sister Mary Robert (her singing teacher might have had a hernia as Lyon’s voice emerged fully decibellular time after time) were memorable. Then to the men who could act, sing, dance, and create unforgettable characters, much less the whole remarkable chorus, and I knew the cause of individual recognition was lost. The cast won over the audience with those wonderfully raunchy first bars, followed them with superb wit, and delivered riveting dance sequences designed by Ms McGirrGarrett. They shattered glasses with intentionally seismically shocking singing before delivering choral elements which were movingly beautiful, and all the time turning out characters with passion and personality – and not a little pathos in some scenes. For me, the high decibel amplification limited the bewitching chemistry of the singing, but hey, that’s what audiences appear to want, and this is a business as well as exercise in the arts.
Hit a show, and boogie ’til the spirit moves you as well.