Sharing a love of singing

Press, 15 May 1985, Page 22

Sharing a love of singing

The common denominator among the 80 members of the National Youth Choir is their love of singing. It is a requirement for members of the national choir to belong to a choir in their local centre. Most belong to two, or even three, choirs.

Oliver Drennan, of Christchurch, is no exception. He is a member of the Royal Musical Society and sings with the University Singers. Mr Drennan joined the national Youth Choir in 1981, two years after it as formed.

He says he wanted to join the choir because he knew a number of people singing in it and because of his interest in singing. He passed what he calls a gruelling audition of singing, music reading, and general perception tests. During March another 80 young singers went through the same process, auditioning before the choir’s conductor, Peter Godfrey, and deputy conductor, David Wood.

Twenty were selected to fill the vacancies in the 80voice choir and will be in Christchurch this week and next for five days of intensive rehearsals and a public concert.

The national choir gets together twice a year in the May and August holidays

for rehearsals and concerts.

The programme is an intensive one with up to six hours of rehearsals each day. Because the choir members come from throughout the country, practices are usually limited to these holiday sessions, although the choir occasionally has practices more often. The members in each centre meet more often also, Mr Drennan says. “In Auckland, for instance, many of the choir singers belong to the same local choir and they will see each other once a week. In Christchurch we meet less often than that.”

This year Christchurch has 22 singers in the national choir, with six new members from Christchurch and one from Ashburton passing the auditions. The average age of the choir this year is about 19, Mr Drennan says. Several new younger members have joined. Ages of members range from 16 to 24, although there is no set “retiring” age.

The choir was formed in 1979 with Guy Jansen from the Department of Education as the inspiration. Mr Jansen was the choir’s musical director for the first four years when the present conductor, Professor Godfrey, took over.

Internationally known as a choral conductor Professor Godfrey is the director of music at the Wellington Cathedral and conductor of the Wellington Orpheus Choir.

The Department of Education’s support of the choir has continued with the deCartment providing secreirial services and administrative staff.

The choir’s main sponsor is the National Bank, although other sponsors will be involved this year, Mr Drennan says. Sponsorship accounts for most of the choir’s income. The remainder comes from sales of its records and cassettes, concert takings, and donations from the Friends of the Choir organisation.

The rehearsal session in Christchurch begins today for the 40 members of the choir that form the smaller chamber choir. They meet today to practise for concerts in Timaru on Saturday evening and Ashburton on Sunday afternoon before returning to Christchurch on Sunday.

The rest of the choir will arrive in the city on Sunday for rehearsals for an infor-

mal lunchtime concert in the Christchurch Cathedral on Wednesday and a public concert in the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on Thursday evening, May 23. The music for the Thursday concert includes “Dirge for Doomsday,” commissioned by the choir with a grant from the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council and the New Zealand Composers’ Foundation.

The piece was composed by Jenny Macleod, "in memory of the butcheredmillions, victims of World War 11, and the Stalinist years. Compassion and conscience are (the) object.” The programme also includes sacred music from the sixteenth and seventeenth Centuries, a Johann Sebastian Bach motet for double choir, and modem songs for male voices. The guest artist for the concert is the young Christchurch cellist, Christopher Kane, whose brother, Simon, is a choir member. A finalist in the Television New Zealand Young Musicians’ contest, Christopher Kane will play Bach’s Suite No. 2 in D minor for unaccompanied cello.

Following the choir's usual activities Professor Godfrey will tutor about 30 members in a course on choral conducting. The course will last for three days.

The August meeting of the choir is planned for Wellington, when the choir will team up with the National Youth Orchestra and a National Youth Jazz Band for the first time.