Thursday was the KBB Music Festival at Auckland Town Hall which saw orchestras from various different Auckland secondary schools perform. On the Tuesday and Wednesday before it secondary school jazz bands and concert bands were performing. No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't go to watch those since I had tests. Fortunately I was able to make it to the orchestra performances!
I got back from the hospital just before 12pm in time to catch St Kentigens College perform before Auckland Grammar performed, and they were pretty good! Their orchestra is at least 50-strong, and I'm amazed how they can get so many guys to join an orchestra!
The programme lasted all the way till 4.30pm, but I only stayed till about 4pm once Epsom Girls Grammar School had finished performing. There were plenty of highlights and a few mishaps along the way:
Highlights:
- As expected, Westlake Symphony Orchestra were Great with a capital 'G'! The very fact they can put together a symphony orchestra is impressive in itself! My friend Eliza from pharmacy (the ex-Westlake horn player!!!) came along just in time to watch them perform! They were great as usual, this is the final piece of their programme - 'Hoe Down':
- Another great performance was by Epsom Girls Grammar School, the Epsom Symphonia. This girl Jenny in my church youth group Oddfellows is second lead violinist of the orchestra which is pretty cool! The first piece they played, 'Bacchanale' from the opera 'Samson and Delila' has been stuck in my head ever since!
Not So Highlights:
- A bit of a shame Mt Roskill Grammar School's orchestra crumbled a bit on stage. They were performing a Handel suite and got to a passage where it was just the recorder and keyboard playing when the keyboard player kept playing faster and faster. The recorder player couldn't keep up and just stopped. The rest of the orchestra looked on, not knowing where they were in the music (or maybe they had just missed the entry) which meant the conductor had to resort to stopping the orchestra completely and telling them to go back to a certain bar (which happened to be at the beginning of the recorder and keyboard part). The same thing nearly happened again but fortunately they managed to pull through to the end!
It was a bit of a shame there were no West Auckland schools there, except for a Kelston Boys Stage Band. Avondale College did send a few groups, but technically Avondale falls within Auckland City boundaries ;)
Despite not having any groups there, Rutherford still had a presence in the programme though. Since it's the festival's 25th anniversary, there was mention of the very first orchestra festival being called the Rutherford Music Festival (the first few were held at Rutherford College way back then in the 80's when the school had a super dooper orchestra!!).
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