Twenty four secondary school choirs finished three days of competition at the Christchurch Town Hall on Saturday night, and when the gold awards were read out at a sold out gala concert, every one of the eight went to an Auckland school.
The Big Sing finale ran from Thursday 27 August to Saturday 29 August, with eight adjudicated sessions across three days and a gala concert on the Saturday evening hosted by Christchurch born broadcaster Miriama Kamo. RNZ reported that the competition had no overall winner, and that the stand out winners were Paradisum from Epsom Girls Grammar School and Fortissimo from Dilworth School.
The other six choirs awarded gold were Voicemale from Westlake Boys High School, Cantare from Westlake Girls High School, Choralation from the two Westlake schools combined, Euphony from Kristin School, Saints Alive from St Cuthbert’s College and the Centennial Choir from Mount Albert Grammar School. Voicemale also took the Open Choice repertoire award for a performance of ‘Songs of the Wizard’ from the musical Wicked.
Three of the eight gold awards therefore went to choirs drawn from a single pair of neighbouring schools on Auckland’s North Shore. The remaining five came from schools in Epsom, Albany, Mount Albert and the central isthmus.
The concentration is less surprising once you look at who made the finale in the first place. The New Zealand Choral Federation’s published list of the 24 finalists shows 13 came from the Auckland and Northland region, five from Wellington and three from Canterbury and the West Coast. The last three places went to Ad Lucem from Napier Girls High School, Bel Suono from Waikato Diocesan School and MANifesto from Palmerston North Boys High School. No choir from Otago, Southland or the Nelson and Marlborough region made the final 24, although all three regions sent choirs to the Cadenza festivals held earlier in August.
MANifesto did not leave empty handed. The Palmerston North boys took the Audience Impact award for their rendition of ‘We Rise Again’ by the Canadian songwriter Leon Dubinsky, a performance RNZ described as simple but spine tingling.
The finale also handed out a national Pasifika award for the first time, for the best performance of a piece in a Pacific language. It went jointly to Paradisum, for ‘Tupulaga Samoa’ by Juliana Sopoaga Lologa and Joyce Lonise Toleafoa, and to Fortissimo, for ‘Vi’i o Kiliuati’ by Maoiautele Pule Tusa. Seven choirs contested the new category.
The award was judged by Dr Siliva Gaugatao, who told RNZ before the finale that the Auckland regional competition had run a Pasifika category for about a decade and that taking it nationwide was a natural progression. “We want to continue promoting Pacific music and this is one way of motivating choirs to take on a challenge learning Pacific music,” he said. “Also, we are a Pacific country and we’ve got amazing choirs who can perform Pacific repertoire really, really well.”
He credited the film Tīnā and the Signature Choir with pushing Pacific choral music forward. “Everything seems to be happening for Pacific music and especially Pacific choral music. It’s always been strong, for instance, in the churches and schools, but now slowly getting into celebrating Pacific repertoire, a wide range of Pacific repertoire of sacred music all the way to folk songs as well.”
One of the choirs that contested the new award was Con Anima from St Patrick’s College in Kilbirnie, Wellington. Chorister TJ Tuimavave told RNZ that the appeal of the choir was as much about the group as the singing. “The memories you can create with others – there’s so many new boys and, at the start, we felt as if we were strangers, and it’s now come to the point where we feel like family,” he said. “It’s where we can trust each other, we can rely on each other and, if we need a hand, they’ll always be there for us.”
Tuimavave said he wanted the award to encourage others to have a go. “There’s lots of Polynesian boys and girls who may be too scared to try this stuff just because they don’t want to get judged. I just want to try and be a role model, and start a new foundation where people who want to try new things – especially choir, which is my passion – they can try it as well.”
Fellow Con Anima member Kirdan Tofilau said representation mattered. “Many of the major choirs you see on TV, there’s not many Pasifika people there. Just having that representation, and knowing that it’s possible for us to be in these spaces and to hold ourselves to high standards, that’s really important to me.”
The numbers behind the finale are large. In a statement issued on 11 August, the New Zealand Choral Federation said more than 9,100 students from 269 secondary school choirs had taken part in the regional festivals held around the country earlier this year. RNZ put the figure at about 9,000 singers from more than 280 choirs. Ten regional festivals in June feed into three Cadenza festivals in August, and the best 24 choirs go through to the finale, which rotates between Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. Last year it was held in Dunedin.
The adjudication panel was made up of the New Zealand born, United States based composer and conductor David Childs, the 2005 Lexus Song Quest winner Madeleine Pierard, and Tim Wayne-Wright, formerly of the British group The King’s Singers. Liz Kereru judged the Auahi Kore award, given for the best performance of a piece with words in the Māori language.
Federation chief executive Christine Argyle said in the same statement that the competition does more than produce winners. “The Big Sing is about so much more than performance. It fosters connection, commitment, creativity and a sense of belonging for thousands of rangatahi each year,” she said, using the Māori word for young people. “We’re delighted to see its impact recognised at ministerial level and look forward to celebrating the extraordinary talent of our young singers at this year’s Finale.”
That ministerial recognition came in June, when Education Minister Erica Stanford attended the Wellington regional festival and announced a grant of $150,000 for The Big Sing across 2026 and 2027. Stanford said music “builds strong foundations for learning, confidence, and can lead to new opportunities both within and outside the classroom”.
The gala ended with all 24 choirs singing together on ‘Hine e Hine’, composed by Princess Te Rangi Pai, arranged by Andrew Withington and conducted by Susan Densem. The judges made the point that in a world where people are increasingly isolated and glued to their screens, singing together is a good way to stay connected.
Recordings of the 2026 finale are on the New Zealand Choral Federation’s YouTube channel, and RNZ Concert will broadcast the gala on Music Alive at 7pm on Friday 11 September.
Did your old school have a choir, and does it still? Tell us in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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