Music Academy 2023 applications now open
MUSIC ACADEMY 2023 APPLICATION
Itinerant Instrumental and Vocal Music Lessons 2023
Expressions of Interest Now Open
Expressions of Interest are now open for Instrumental and Vocal Music lessons for 2023.
Please complete the expression of interest form (link below), and you will then be emailed the relative information and conditions with a link to the contract.
Music at Westlake Girls
Westlake Girls is proud of its vibrant and busy Music Department with many and varied co-curricular ensemble groups that contribute to its longstanding reputation for excellence. Each Premier ensemble group has a development pathway leading in, ensuring that every young musician is developed, whatever their starting level. Our association with Westlake Boys High School allows us to cooperate in numerous mixed ensembles, providing socialisation through music making. For many years the Westlake schools have dominated regional and national music competitions as well as achieving great success in many international competitions.
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Outstanding success
2021 and 2022 have both been outstanding years of success for our premier groups.
In June 2022, our Westlake choirs – Cantare, Choralation, Cigno Voce and Nota Bella – all competed at the NZCF Auckland Regionals of The Big Sing. The Auckland region has the largest number of choirs over the country, with 56 entries of Mixed, Female and Male voice choirs performing for adjudicator Dr Andrew Withington. The Westlake choirs shone during their recitals and were awarded numerous awards on the final Gala concert evening.
Nota Bella Junior Choir: Musical Director Elise Bradley
Runners up: Best Performance in the Choral Art Composition Category
Winners of Best Festival Program by a Junior Choir
Choralation: Musical Director Rowan Johnston
Runners up: Best A Capella Performance in Any Genre
Winners: Best Festival Program by a Mixed Choir
Cantare: Musical Director Fiona Wilson
Winners: Best Festival Program by a Female Choir
Winners: Best A Capella Performance in Any Genre
Winners: Adjudicators Award for Excellent Performance of a Single Work
Westlake Boys High School’s Voicemale choir were also awarded Best Festival Programme by a Male Choir, which means the Westlake premier choirs took a clean sweep of Auckland awards for the second year in a row.
Cantare, Choralation and Voicemale were selected to compete in the Finale and will travel to Christchurch at the end of August. Cigno Voce Senior Choir (Musical Director Rachel Carson) was selected for the first time to compete at Cadenza, held in Rotorua just before Finale.
2021 was a successful year for four Year 13 composition students who were awarded First, Third and two Highly Commended in the NZCF Federation Choral Composition Competition. Jonine Tiaka (pictured seated below) won with her composition piece Invictus. Lisa Qian came third equal with A Night Thought while Hannah Jones and Melody Zhang both received a Highly Commended for Voices of the Air and Tree at My Window respectively.
Also in 2021, Year 10 student, Kinda Kassibawi was successful in being selected as one of the 93 finalists in the Lion Foundation ‘Play it Strange’ Song Writing Competition.
Cantare choir was fortunate to be able to perform at two ANZAC memorial services at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, and two of our students (Alanah Jones and Madi Jagger) performed with the New Zealand Secondary Schools Choir.
Cantare was also invited to perform with the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra in the Auckland Town Hall for the Discovery Concert programme. And while international travel wasn’t possible in 2021, four premier instrumental Westlake ensembles toured the North Island in July – shortly before New Zealand went into lockdown.
Check out Westlake for yourself
If you’d like to experience music at Westlake, our fabulous video is well worth a watch.
SOUNZ – the Centre for New Zealand Music features videos some of Westlake’s performances over the past few years. SOUNZ facilitates recording and promotion of New Zealand orchestral works for school and non-professional orchestras. You can see the videos here. You can also watch a clip of Cantare performing at the National Finale of The Big Sing in 2019 where they won Gold.
