WSCW Music/Puoro Term 2 Round-Up

Te Whare Puoro has been a hive of activity in Term 2 with all sorts of musical happenings! Bear with us – this is going to be a long article!

NZ Music Month

Term 2 began as it always does, with NZ Music Month where we celebrate the glorious music that our country produces for an entire month. We brought back in some of our very own NZ musicians to talk to our kids about their study at SAE and their current musical endeavours.

Henri Woodley shared about his Songwriting Diploma at SAE, the musical opportunities he took advantage of while at school that helped his career including Stand Up Stand Out and Play It Strange, and how he balances making and releasing music professionally whilst making enough money. He then treated us to performance!! Felix Miller-Cooper (BUZZ and other bands) and Huia Cameron (Groop Chat) came to talk to us about their Audio Production Diploma at SAE, the opportunities THEY took up while at school including Rockquest, volunteering at bfm and Crescendo, and their current work in the industry as both live performers and behind the scenes at places like Roundhead Studios. These talks are available for students to watch on their music Google Classrooms. Make sure you check out their music pages on Spotify and Instagram!

We also finished our P3 Performance Room upgrade just in time to host Music Month Gigs! Two of our Year 12 students were amazing – they organised and ran Open Mic Mondays all month to give our students performance opportunities. Eely Dan (the teacher band) also played a lunchtime gig of NZ music to close out Music Month on NZ Music T-Shirt Day.

NCEA Solo Performance Week

Following hot on the heels of NZ Music Month came our NCEA Solo Performance Week! It made a huge difference having the new stage and lighting to make it feel professional. We had 114 students perform their NCEA Level 2 or 3 Solo Performance Set 1 across the week including all class periods, an afterschool concert and an evening concert. Now we get to do it all again in Term 3 Week 7!

Music Industry Visitors

We have made a huge push to have outside visitors in to talk about the music industry in Aotearoa NZ. Our first visit was from Ignite – an incredible programme run by Big Fan studio and venue. This is a free music mentoring programme for youth that gives them training in event production, music production or event management. A number of our students have been through the Ignite programme and found it invaluable and we hope more will go each time the programme runs. Rachel Ashby from NZ Music Commission (and previously bfm) came to talk about the music industry, different opportunities they could take advantage of, how to get onto student radio and more. Play It Strange came to visit to talk about all the competitions they run, and the other incredible ongoing opportunities they provide for Play It Strange alumni including access to soundchecks for massive events like Homegrown and Big Runga. They brought Nat from There’s a Tuesday who discussed her songwriting inspirations and technique. We also managed to convince her to perform on our new stage too! Play It Strange is a huge support of our department so a visit is always a joy. All of these talks are also available on student Google Classrooms to view.

Smokefree Rockquest & Tangata Beats

As always, this year was an epic number of entries into Rockquest and Tangata Beats! We had 11 bands, 1 duo and 1 solo entry and they were all amazing! Crying Ivy and The Kardiaque Procedure were selected for the Auckland Central Regional Finals where they performed 2 originals each to an awesome mosh pit. Crying Ivy stole the show and won 1st place!!! They are now waiting to see if they are selected for the National Finals in September. Check them out on Spotify, Instagram and a gig near you!

The Big Sing

This year we returned again to the Big Sing choral competition! Victoria conducted our choir Cheap Trills who performed Dreams by Fleetwood Mac, Sway by Bic Runga and Dona Nobis Pacem by Ralph Vaughan Williams. They performed so well in the Auckland Town Hall and were proudly repping our brand new Puoro-Music performance t-shirts! Huge thanks to the Parent Action Group (and everyone who goes to their fundraising events) for sponsoring these shirts so our students can wear them at performances and competitions. We are really grateful!!!

Little Weirdos Musical Showcase

Our Little Weirdos put on a wonderful showcase on the KHCL Terraces at the start of June. It was a mix of full ensemble songs that we worked on together, and small ensembles that the students organised themselves. We had everything from Les Miserables to Beetlejuice! Special shout out to Earl Ocdao for our live piano accompaniment on the full ensemble pieces – what a treat! Thank you to everyone that came to support the afterschool show and the evening performance. We are now starting work on our next original musical for 2027.

NZ Music Commission Matariki Wananga

We were delighted to take a group to the second annual Matariki Wananga hosted by the NZ Music Commission. This wananga is specifically to encourage Māori musicians to develop their own original music and enter the Play It Strange Waiata competition. Victoria took a group of 17 Year 11 and 12s to the wananga and they came back with some fantastic original music they had worked on with musicians such as Rebel Reid, Arahi and Edyonthebeat.

What’s Next?

Puoro Music Showcase Concert
Term 3 will be another term of chaotic fun! Week 2 we have our Puoro Music Showcase Concert on Tuesday 28 July in Te Horo. Last year more than 60% of our students came down with colds/flu at the same time and we had to cancel it so we are crossing our fingers that everyone is still well after the holidays! Come along to see our Choir, Musical Theatre, String Group, Wind Band and Jazz Band show off their skills.

KBB Festival
And we are finally returning to the KBB Festival with our Jazz Band and String Group for the first time since 2023. String Group are performing on Monday 10 August in the afternoon at Holy Trinity Cathedral and Jazz Band are Thursday 13 August in the evening at St Mary’s Cathedral.

Follow our instagram to keep up with the chaos! wscw_puoromusic