Kapiti College Choir - New Zealand

Kapiti College Choir was established 10 years ago and has undergone many transformations in that time. Starting as a mixed choir of all Year levels, they moved to a girls’ only choir in 2007 and returned to a mixed choir in 2012. In 2010 they travelled to Melbourne, and sang with the Australian Children’s Choir, and recorded an EP in the Trinity College Chapel. They also attended the 7th World Choir Games in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2012 where they collected two silver medals for their entries in two categories.

They love to sing all genre but in particular NZ music and Jazz standards. The repertoire also includes Elgar, Chilcott, Holst, and the choir’s favourite New Zealand composer – David Childs. They also love to sing other works by New Zealand composers including Dorothy Buchanan and David Hamilton. (All of their members are also proficient at barbershop singing and play other instruments.)

They regularly perform for the local community. They compete every year in The Big Sing – a regional Choral competition, and in 2012 they qualified to participate in the National Big Sing Finale. In 2015 the collected two more awards in their regional competition.

Comprised of 20 enthusiastic singers and their conductor, Bridget O’Shanassy, the group travelled to Kathaumixw Choral festival in 2014. They enjoyed their visit so much they are busily preparing repertoire for 2016! O’Shanassy has plenty of enthusiasm and is always smiling during rehearsals and performances. This makes work much easier and more delightful and is a strong motivation to achieve the aim of competing at an international level. To get closer to their goal they meet every week for rehearsal, although when they are working towards a concert, rehearsals increase significantly!