Hamilton student Katie Trigg was centre-stage on tour with the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir.
The national student choir tours every second year, and this year attended the International Choral Kathaumixw in Canada, as guest choir.
The two-week tour included 10 concert performances and during the massed choral song for the Festival Gala Concert finale, Trigg was selected as soloist.
This involved an improvised gospel solo backed by a 1000-voice choir, and it was one of her highlights of the tour, she said.
‘‘Being able to experience all these different choirs from all of these different cultures was incredible, especially the winning choir from Hong Kong.’’
The Kathaumixw attracts competing choirs from all over the globe and as the invited guest choir, the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir shared concerts with many of them, under the direction Andrew Withington.
Following the five day festival, the choir toured Vancouver Island.
Trigg, a student at St Paul’s Collegiate, is intending to study performance music at university next year as she continues to pursue her goal of becoming a professional musician.
She was joined on the tour by fellow student Aidan Phillips.
The 2015-2016 New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir is now reaching the end of its two year cycle, and performed one last concert at the Big Sing Finale in Dunedin.
Trigg said the choir was an incredible opportunity to vastly improve your musicianship.
Auditions for the 2017-2018 choir will run from September 26-October 4 across the country. Applications and information are available at www.nzsschoir.com/join.
