Three MAGS musical groups went to the recent KBB Music Festival and they all came back with awards.
The Jazz Band won a Silver Award – to go with the Silver they won at the Auckland Jazz Festival the weekend before – while the Chamber Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra both collected Bronze Awards.
At KBB, the Jazz Band performed a variety of well known Jazz pieces, plus a student song that MAGS’ Jazz Director arranged for the group.
The Chamber Orchestra performed four pieces, including the original piece Balkan Dance by Emma Moon. Some music directors have asked for permission to perform her piece with their orchestras.
And the Symphony Orchestra performed a variety of pieces including one New Zealand piece.
HoD Music Milica Moon said the large instrumental groups had been rehearsing every day leading up to the KBB competition.
At KBB, students spent hours listening to many different groups.
Ms Moon said, “That is a great way to develop positive critiquing skills. Students want to improve and get even better results next year. They have all showed up at the rehearsals after the competition and we have worked on different sound qualities, different dynamics and techniques.
“We will start working on a new KBB repertoire for 2019 very soon.”
Ms Moon added that all the conductors are also doing succession planning for 2019, as the Year 13 players will need to replaced with players that are being trained for new leadership roles.
