1.  Danielle’s Fundraising Concert – Danielle Parker is off to Canada with NZSSC and is having a fundraising concert in the Auditorium on THURSDAY 27th May  at 7pm.  Entry is by donation.  Bellissimo will be singing, along with the other two school choirs as well as a variety of soloists!

2.  NZCF Big Sing Auckland Regionals:  June 16.  We are in the afternoon session, and will be singing at the Gala Concert that night.  Entry to the competition sessions is free, programs are $2.  More information about the Gala Concert will be posted soon.

We have had two long rehearsals which were fantastic, and involved straws, water bottles, and pencils……

For those of you who didn’t make it in this year, make sure you sign up for either Junior Choir (Y7 and Y8) or Senior Choir (Y9 – Y13) and develop your singing voices. Those two choirs are changing slightly this year and will be new and improved and we need your voices!!!

For those who did… first rehearsal is Thursday 10 February in the Auditorium, 3.15 – 5.30. I look forward to seeing you all there!

Bellissimo, 2010

(in alphabetical order)

Alyshia Bullock

Amber Johnson

Andrew Solley

Ashleigh Kissane

Brandon Skelton

Codi Wehi

Danielle Parker

Ethen Greening

Jackie Spittal

Jasmine Cornish

Josh McKay

Karen Ishiguro

Keatley Parker

Laura Charman

Lewis Francis

Mitchell Aidney

Sofia Voudouris

Stephanie Thompson

Whitney Wikaira

Zoe Finlayson

The 2009 Bellissimo will be performing at the school celebrations, held at the college on the 13th of February. If you would like to hear us perform a lot of our repertoire from the last 4 years then come on down!

In other news, Bellissimo’s performance of Scarborough Fair was featured on Kerry Marsh’s website! It is listed as a permanent feature on his website as an example of the score! wahoo! If you are interested see… http://www.kerrymarsh.com

Bellissimo had a FANTASTIC end of year / end of an era celebration at the Kirkbrides amazing house… here are a few photos from this amazing occasion.. for more see our facebook page.

Day One:

It was a glorious morning on the 26th of August when Bellissimo departed the school grounds on what was going to be a fantastic 5 days. The 21 members and Miss Jones took a shuttle to the airport where their first flight took them to Christchurch (There was much squabbling over the window seat!) At least 5 of us had never been on a plane so it was a great experience for them and for all of us. The jolts of turbulence took us by surprise, but most enjoyed the excitement.

We arrived to Dunedin with the greeting of the Sun and the brisk breeze. We were happy that it was not as cold as expected! We headed to Knox College for a rehearsal. Knox College is a hall of residence for the students attending Otago University. We were astounded by the remarkable architecture of Knox College and the incredible familiarity with Hogwarts! The serious-ness began from here; we had a 2 hour rehearsal in which we perfected the rest of our choreography and some not-so-great notes. By the end of the rehearsal our ‘boom diddy’s’ were in time and every note sounded like it had been issued by an angel. We were excited and were ready for the competition the next day!

Evening was fast approaching and with it the cold Dunedin air that we had been waiting to experience. Once we made it to the ‘Regal Court Motel’ we switched our electric blankets on and got ready to hit the town for a Bellissimo Dinner. Fake eyelashes were applied, and heels buttoned as we made our way to the Tokyo Garden for a mean feed. This was an experience to say the least, while some of us were merely there for the food; others were there to further their song writing experience, as Joe sung as “Parsley, Orange, BBQ Sauce and Rice”. As we all know good things come to an end and we all left with rice and noodle filled stomachs eager for the next day.

Day Two: First day of Competition

A 6:30am wake up to hair dryers and lights blaring at you from all angles meant that it was a hard start of some. All of us were determined to make a good impression, especially the girls who were eager to scope out some choir boys! With our blazers done up and ready to go, we left the motel to head for our first recital.

We had our first sound check on the stage, a quick 15 minutes on the stage… what a feeling! The sound of Bellissimo filled the entire hall, taking our sound to new heights. David and Jess went to an interview for the radio and came up with many witty and funny jokes to represent Bellissimo as an extremely good looking choir.

They then met the rest of the choir in a practice room where tension was running high, as this was our very last practice before the competition!!! We all left feeling slightly calmer but still nervous about the talent we were up against.

At the opening ceremony we were treated to a song by the mayor, Otago High’s Kapa Haka group, and the ‘Sextet’, who many of us fell in love with.

The nerves were still running high as we came back for our warm up, it was time to show our stuff as we were in the first session. We walked out on stage to a round of applause, possible because of our good looks, or maybe just because they could tell we would be sensational. Our first songs were E te Ariki, Ubi Caritas, and Why Do Fools. They all went down a treat, as we had set the bar high for the rest of the competition. We could then sit back and relax as we watched 2 more sessions of choirs singing. We learnt a lot just from watching and we soon realised that we were really in with an elite crowd. They day drew to a close as an exhausted bunch returned to the motel at 10pm with instructions to go straight to sleep as we had another jam packed day ahead.

Day Three: Competition Day 2

OK Chorale was the boys’ choir from Palmerston North who sung first one day two. Bellissimo had idolised this choir for a long time and we all love the chance to see them live. After they sung we made friends with them, they were very friendly! It was a long day of watching choirs as we were not performing until 7pm that night. Between each session we had an opportunity to get food and shop!

It was time for our second performance and the tension was running high. After our last set we were determined to really wow the audience with our ‘x factor’ piece Scarborough Fair. Despite the nerves we were all determined to do the very best we could! We walked off the stage feeling content that we had really given it our all, and the feedback we received from the audience was amazing.

Day Four: Final Day of Competition

Today was the day of the Gala Concert where all the choirs song chosen by the judges. This was a lot of fun, baring more resemblance to a Rock concert then a Choir concert! Bellissimo came away with a Bronze Award and a few phone numbers. The massed choir item really blew the audience away as all the choirs collaborated and sung ‘O Fortuna’ from Carmina Burana by Carl Orf.

The student function was defiantly a highlight of the trip as it was a chance for all the choirs to mix and mingle. Bellissimo made many friends and life long relationships were formed.

Day FIve: Last day in Dunedin

We had a fantastic last day in Dunedin scoping out some sights, doing some last minute shopping, and getting ready to leave. Lots of turbulence on our flights on our way home, plus and hour and an half delay at Christchurch airport mean that there were 22 very tired travellers arriving home.

Jessica Thompson & Karen Ishiguro

Congratuations everyone – this is a fantastic achievement!

See the official press release below:

Congratulations to the 20 selected choirs, the two reserve choirs, and the two guest choirs. In all there will be 22 choirs participating in the National Finale in the Dunedin Town Hall from August 27 to 29, 2009. Here are the choirs, in no particular order.

AUCKLAND
1. Saints Alive – St Cuthbert’s College
2. St Cecilia Singers – Diocesan School for Girls
3. Voicemale – Westlake Boys’ High School
4. Choralation – Westlake Boys’ & Girls’ High Schools
5. Grammar Voices – Auckland Grammar School
6. The Fundamentals – Rangitoto College
7. Belissimo – Whangaparaoa College

MANAWATU/WANGANUI
8. OK Chorale – Palmerston North Boys’ High School

WELLINGTON
9. Wellington College Chorale – Wellington College
10. Con Anima – St Patrick’s College, Wellington

NELSON/MARLBOROUGH
11. Bella Voce- Marlborough Girls’ College

CANTERBURY/WEST COAST
12. Resolutions – Rangi Ruru Girls’ School
13. Bel Canto – Burnside High School
14. Chapel Choir – Christ’s College
15. Schola Cantorum – Christ’s College
16. Con Brio – Villa Maria College
17. Magna Voce – Burnside High School

OTAGO/SOUTH CANTERBURY
18. Craighead Chorale – Craighead Diocesan School
19. Sings Hilda – St Hilda’s Collegiate School
20. Craighead Choir – Craighead Diocesan School

Reserve 1. Aorora Voices – Burnside High School
Reserve 2. Cantare – Westlake Girls’ High School

GUEST CHOIRS
The Tenners – Sacred Heart Girls’ College, New Plymouth
Otago Girls’ High School Choir – Otago Girls’ High School

Bellissimo competed in the NZCF Regional Big Sing competition at the Auckland Auckland Town Hall on June the 17th. We came away with huge smiles that we are positive won’t leave for months! This was our third year in the Big Sing, but the first time with all our members present!!

The competition asks us to sing three pieces – a pre 1800 art song, a NZ Composition, and a song which falls into the category of ‘other style’. Our first song was Now is the Month of Maying by Thomas Morley, the second, a Maori song, E Te Ariki and our third piece Ubi Caritas by Durufle.

We performed at the Gala Concert and loved every moment of it. We could not have performed any better that day.

This year we are estatic as we manged to come away from the Big Sing with TWO awards. The first award was for the best ‘other style’ which was the song we chose to sing (Ubi Caritas) and to add to the great excitement of the evening, we were also awarded the cup for best performance.

As we are a brand new school this was a great achievement for all of us. We have grown together throughout the years and getting these awards really boosted us up. Having each and every one of us there really brought us together as one BIG family and we really well and truly had NO REGRETS! Enjoy the photos and videos from our wonderful day!

Enjoy the photos from our wonderful day!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bellissimowhangaparaoa/sets/72157619819096841/