Tag Archives: kristin school

KBB 2008

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Well the craziest week of the year for Auckland school orchestras, chamber orchestras, jazz and concert bands, is that of the annual KBB festival. Gosh, it is busy. Last year I had the Kristin senior orchestra in, and it was my first year … so everything is still a little bit of a blur. I remember being just so horribly nervous. BUT we got a bronze award, something the orchestra had never received before.

This year I had three orchestras. WHAT FUN!! The first was the Carmel College Orchestra:

Carmel at KBB 28.08.2008

Conducting the Carmel College Orchestra at the KBB Festival

These guys were awesome. They were playing some tricky pieces and it all went fantastically well. My second biggest disaster of the day happened when I gave a very distinctive cue to the first violins at a place where I know they don’t count and it’s not clear what’s going on musically – they just wait for the cue, a whole two bars early. But thank goodness they entered correctly.

Next up was the Kristin Symphonia.

Kristin at KBB 28.08.2008

Conducting the Kristin Symphonia at the KBB Festival

 I had such a blast conducting these guys. With one down, I just relaxed and I could tell the players were also just having a great time on stage. Their programme also went wonderfully well.

Afterwards I was whisked away to the Carmel Chamber Orchestra who was warming up. While I was putting my favourite baton away … it snapped!! DISASTER!! It was my favourite baton, which I only use in concerts, got it from America, and has my name engraved. I couldn’t believe it. I sulked for a while, but since then however, I have had the superglue out, and it is like new … well maybe just a little bit wonky.

Well finally was the Carmel Chamber Orchestra. Was number three for me, it was 4:40pm and they had been there since 9:30am. But we got up there and gave it everything. Luckily we had some light numbers … a piece by Silvestri and one by the Beatles. They did very well and were well received by the audience, but maybe, like us, they just wanted to go home.

Well I was happy to get out of the venue at the end of the day. Being sandwiched in by hundreds of school kids all day is not to be desired. But was happy also that all my groups had done wonderfully well. Now I look forward to the results …

Last night’s Kristin May Magic concert

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Hey everyone,

Well last night was Kristin School‘s May Magic concert. It is their mid-year music extravaganza and last night it went fantastically well. It had everything from the year one and two choir, through to the senior award winning groups.

One of my orchestra’s, the Kristin Symphonia performed. It was our first big performance for the year. A few hairy moments, but went beautiful. I was so proud of them. Panning out to be a good year from them I think.

Photo link coming soon.

Kristin Symphonia gets Bronze @ KBB Festival

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Hey everyone, well this week one of my orchestras, the Kristin Symphonia, performed at the KBB Music Festival at the Auckland Town Hall. They did very well indeed. There was some interesting acoustic problems going on as the timpani especially was positioned so far away. Generally though they did extremely well … the first movement from Dvorak’s Ninth in particular was superb.

In the end we got a BRONZE award. A little way off gold (we’re saving that for next year) but we are very happy with the result, as it is the first time in the orchestra’s history that they have received an award at the Festival.

It was my first Festival of this type, so listening to the other orchestras and seeing how everything works makes me excited about the prospects for next year.