Musical Director’s Report for the year ending December 2023.

The choir has had a successful year, with Tuesday practice attendance usually in the twenties.  This is a viable number for our choir, though it would be good to get more members joining.

In June we had a “Pot-Pourri” concert, which included both sacred and secular music.  The most demanding part was a selection of Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzes, for choir and four-hand piano.  Janneke Visser joined us as a piano duettist.  We also had Beatles with a twist, a medley from Les Miserables and ended with a tour of Waiheke’s Te Arahura to the tune of Offenbach’s can-can.

Our traditional Christmas concert was described by many as the best yet, with St Peter’s church overflowing and a generous amount raised for the Budgeting Service.  This year we tried a new approach of alternating each choir piece with a Christmas carol sung by the audience, and this was very well received.  It would be well worth using that format again.

Both these concerts involved a lot of different songs, and one of the challenges has been the level of paper-shuffling.  It would help greatly if every member of the choir would organise their music into alphabetical order, so that everyone can find each piece promptly.

It is a source of great satisfaction that we are able to present good music well, even though we are a community choir with no entrance requirements beyond a love of music and singing.  Many of our members have little or no musical training, and yet as a group we manage well, because we enjoy making music and have a climate of acceptance.  It is important that we maintain that positive climate;  for example,  members should never approach other individual singers with criticisms of their singing.  If that is ever needed, it should only be done by the musical director.   

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Carolyn for her complete reliability and superb musicianship.  A big thank-you goes to Maya for her energy and commitment in running the committee.  Mark and Sandy have been great filling in when I was unable to attend, and Gavin has kindly taken on the tricky role of looking after the sheet music.  A big thank-you to every member of the committee.  And thanks, Dee, for sending out the communications.

And to all the choir members:  a big thank you.  Without you none of this would be possible.

Anne Willmann