Well done Wellington East

A reader e-mails:

Thought I would let you know about a Wellington school choir’s success, knowing your support of Wellington culture and arts in your blog.  Wellington East Girls College auditioned choir Cantala has just achieved a fantastic achievement.  …

Last Monday, this 31 member choir won First equal place at the Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival ( http://www.sclfestival.org/) in Vienna.  A phenomenal achievement competing against 20 odd other invited choirs from around the world.  There were a total of 36 ensembles (choirs and musical groups) from 19 countries.  Minister Chris Finlayson has supported the choir and been fulsome in his praise of the choir.  He released a press release last week to acknowledge their success.

There were many highlights including the privilege of singing in the Musikverein for the festival as well as St George’s Church, London and La Madeleine, Paris.  It is not often a NZ youth cultural group achieves the success that this group of young women have.

Next challenge is the Big Sing competition which is the NZ school choir competition to be held from 16-18 August in Wellington.  We parents hope they will do well.

A link to the choir’s website is http://cantala.co.nz/ where you can read their tour blog and success.

Wellington East (Girls College) is the sister school of Rongotai, which I attended. We paired up with them for dances and plays and the like. Congrats to them, and especially the choir members, for their great achievement.

To place first equal in a global competition is very tough for any team from New Zealand, as we so small. They were competing against top teams from Australia, China and the US, plus 16 other countries.

I look forward to one of their performances in Wellington.