Achievements

2010

Rockquest

On 12 June Some free Rockquest Regional Finals took place in the Isacc Theatre Royal. Burnside had representatives in three diggerent bands this year, and took second and third place. With Legions We Stand, with Silas Schwalger-Simth 10Ct on vocals won a $250 voucher from New Zealand Rock Shop as third place winners. Runaway Joe, featuring Andy Bell 13An, Young Chan Kang 13An and Sam Jones 12Bb, received a $400 Rock Shop voucher and a chance to go through to the National Final in Hamilton this September. The Canterbury section of the competition involved around 80 bnads.

Percussion Ensemble

On 30 May, Burnside High School's Percussion Ensemble participated in the Canterbury Provncial Brass Bands Association's annual percussion competition. The group, consistiong of Andrew Bell 13An, Briana Walley 11Cw, Ben Geayley 12Jm, Dave Brockerhoff 12Bf, Andrew Townsend 11Mv, Young Chan Kang, Sam Jones and Rosie Robert 12To, won the Under 19 Percussion Ensemble section.

The Big Sing

A change this year was the involvement of sutdent conductors. Magna Voce was very ably conducted by our Head Boy, William Frost 13Cu, and Male Voice Chorus sang with great enthusiasm under the direction of Andrew Bell and Josh McGirr 13Rr.

Mr Atlas directed the senior girls' choir Bel Canto and a new choir Cantabile . Bel Canto's mature sining and expression both earned praise. Cantabile's rendition of  "All My Trials" by Bob Chilcott moved the audience, and many people were pleased to see the return of a snior auditioned mixed-voice choir at Burnside.

Cantabile and Bel Canto have both been selected for the natinal finals.

Chamber Music

Eight groups out of ten groups from Burnside were selected for the regional final and six of these groups were either partially of wholly from Burnside High School. The winners were The Genzmer Trio featuring Salina Fisher 12To and Todd Gibson-Cornish 11Th, but Sw!tch featuring Claire Elliott 10Mp, Sarah Vergeer 10Os, Logan glasson 10Os and Alice Morgan 10Os, and The Jones' Trio featuring Sam Jones 12Bb, Lena Taylor 12Jl and Ju Ea Park 11Br, were also selected for the national finals in Wellingoton.

ANZAC Day Dawn Service

Male Voice Choir was invited to perform for the ANZAC dawn service which took place in Cathedral Square. Male Voice was the first choir to be invited to the service and it was an honour for us to perform at the event. Male Voice sang Let the Doves of Peace Fly which was specially written for the choir and event.

2009

Choral Music

The Choral Finale was a successful and enjoyable event in Dunedin 26-30 August. Congratulations to Bel Canto and their director Miss Densem on gaining one of the two Gold medals awarded. Aurora Voices were also directed by Miss Densem, and gained a Bronze Award. Our biggest achievement in choral music this year is with the Magna Voce Choir directed by Mr Bruerton. Magna Voce is a large un-auditioned choir, and is part of the course work for students studying Year 11 NCEA or Year 12 and 13 Performance Music or senior Performance Music. To have Magna Voce gain a place at the choral finale is a fine achievement in itself, but added to this was the award of a Silver Medal.

This year, the top prize of the Choral Finale, the Platinum award was given to Choralation, from Westlake Boys’ and Girls’ High Schools.

Bel Canto has released a CD to celebrate gaining the supreme ‘Platinum Award’ at the finale of the big Sing in 2007. This CD “Platinum” is on sale through the school music department for $20.

Chamber Music Final

http://www.chambermusic.co.nz/music-contest/results.php

Notes from Mrs Ussher:

Burnside again leads the way with National Chamber Music Competition

One of the most prestigious of the cultural events in the national Secondary Schools’ calendar is undoubtedly the National Chamber Music Contest. This contest has run since 1965 and its aim to promote chamber music for young groups of secondary school-aged players continues to succeed with performances at a level that seems quite incredible from such young musicians.

The national final in 2009 was held in the James Hay Theatre on Saturday August 1st. Eight groups were chosen: two were from Auckland, one from Hamilton, one from Hamilton and Tauranga and four from Christchurch. Of those four Christchurch groups only one student was not from Burnside High School. This meant that in this most hotly-contested of musical national events more than half the finalists came from Burnside High School. This is an amazing feat and a wonderful tribute in itself to our students, their parents and their teachers.

Fittingly, the first place was awarded to a Burnside High School group, the Wäldchen Trio. Anita Huang 13 Rn (harp), William Frost 12To (flute) and Kate Oswin 13Lh (viola). Tutored by Miss Renaud the trio played Veiled Echoes by Lior Navok, a young Israeli composer. This was a work that was new to the audience but played with authority and conviction and proved a most worthy winner.

Only a first place was given but Burnside High School, and the audience in general, also delighted in three other strong and entirely musical performances. From Belljung performed Gao Ping’s Enchanted Hands for percussion and two pianos. Mr Stevenson tutored this group with Andrew Bell 12Nv (percussion), Bi Na Jung 13Lh (piano), Briana Walley 10Ms (percussion) and I Chen Sun 12To (piano).

The Knight Quartet with Gemma Knight 13 Bw (soprano saxophone), Pongsakorn Soonthornyaanakij 12Bd (alto saxophone), Bryn Roberts 13Pt (tenor saxophone) and Sam Jones 11Hm (baritone saxophone) performed Blow! by contemporary American composer, Perry Goldstein. Their tutor was Mr Hobson. The Knight Quartet won winners of the Christchurch regional contest.

Last year’s national winners, the Bedrich Quartet, were also featured in the 2009 final. Emma Yoon 13Dy (violin), Salina Fisher 11Hm (violin), Bryony Gibson-Cornish, Rangi Ruru School for Girls (viola) and Jahun Lee 12Bf (cello) played two movements from Ravel’s String Quartet in F. They were tutored by Mr Larsen.

The evening was capped off for all of us by the special award of the Marie Vandewart Memorial Award in recognition of outstanding service and commitment to fostering the love of chamber music to our own Head of Music, Mr Hugh Stevenson. There was no award on the night that was more richly deserved nor more warmly received and applauded.

Jazz Band and Concert Band

Concert Band won a Silver Award at the Schools’ Concert Band Festival, held on Sunday 2 August.

During the weekend of 25-26 July, was the annual JazzQuest, run by the CPIT Christchurch Jazz School.

The Burnside High School Big Band, directed by Mr Bainbridge and the SMP Jazz Quartet directed by Michael Bell both were awarded Gold Medals. As well, George Cook 13Gj won the award for best player in the contest. This year, 14 Big Bands and 9 small ensembles entered the competition. The adjudicator was American drummer and clinician Claude Askew.

Watch this space for an update on the Southern Youth Jazz Festival, where our SMP Jazz Quartet are performing at present.

National Youth Orchestra

Congratulations to students who gained places in the 2009 National Youth Orchestra: Emma Yoon 13Dy (violin), Kate Oswin 13Lh (violin), Hardaker 13Bw (viola), Sean Daly 12Nv (violin) and Jay Lee 12Bf (cello). Many former students were also members of the orchestra including concertmaster Ben Morrison.

Rockquest

Congratulations to The Young Souls (Michael Bastin 13ML, Alastair Ding 13Io, Ammanuel Addis 13Te, Nick Merrett 13Ws, Sam Frost 13Bw) who have were awarded second place in the 2009 Canterbury regional Smokefreerockquest contest. The event was held over two nights in The Bedford, with 28 bands selected for the regional final. The Apra Lyric Writer’s Award winners were David Haslett 13Rm for his song ‘Nova’ and Andrew Bell 12Nv for his song ‘Hold You Through’.

Chartfest Review by Sam Jones 11Hm

The Burnside Heats of Chartfest 09 consisted of four very different styles of bands. The first band on stage was Alienation (John Cheng 11Oy, Ian Sun 11Hm, Gavin Copeland 12Wa, Adam Lomas 12Mu), and rocked the Aurora stage with their unique style of instrumental playing. The next band up were The Young Souls, and had the crowd getting into their sweet reggae beats. Subtle Impression (Andrew Bell 12Nv, Jonathan Teague, Young Chan Kang 12Mu) followed, and impressed the audience with their stage presence, and pop-punk influence. To finish off the lunchtime heat, The Butterfly Conspiracy (Martin Moon 11Wl, Sam Jones 11Hm, Axel McCort 11Re, Ben Geayley 11Jm, Young Chan Kang 12Mu) got the crowd cheering with their guitarist’s lead break behind his head, and the lead singer’s awesome stage presence. But The Young Souls won the judges over to take out the Burnside heat, and move on to the final at Zebedees, where they would play against 5 other finalists to grab the top prize of opening Chartfest 09 at the Town Hall. Meanwhile, behind the scenes Awakened Inferno (including Sam Jones 11Hm) from Burnside and Aranui took out their heat, and moved on to impress the judges with their stage presence and monster riffs and win 1st prize at the Zebedees final. Close behind were The Young Souls also from Burnside, who put on a great show, and came out with the second prize. So Awakened Inferno from Burnside and Aranui went on to open the mainstage at the Town Hall and collect the prizes, including a live music video, radio recording and packs including microphones and a set of gigs coming up with the local Chartfest bands.

List of Perfomances

Please open the attachment below for events