For the fourth year running Diocesan’s elite Year 9-13 choir, St. Cecilia Singers, has been selected as one of the 24 school choirs from over 200 entries to compete at The Big Sing National Finale in Dunedin at the end of August. 

The Big Sing is run by the New Zealand Choral Federation and is New Zealand’s nationwide top schools’ choral competition. Competition is fierce, but St. Cecilia Singers have ambitious goals. This year, they hope their combination of talent and their performance repertoire that includes a Latvian piece that uses an accompaniment of tuned wine glasses, will see them achieving the most prestigious award of all – Platinum  –  the award for the single highest performing choir. 

They are off to a good start. They’ve already won Best Festival Recital Programme by a Female Choir at the Auckland regional festival in June this year. In the 2013 National Finale they achieved Silver, and in both 2014 and 2015 they were one of the five choirs to win Gold.

Choir Director, Shona McIntyre-Bull, is confident that their performance this year will put them firmly in the running for the top honour, “I don’t believe the judges will have seen tuned wine glasses performed by a school choir before. It’s an evocative sound.  We have some outstanding musicians in the choir. We hope this is our year!”

As well as the Latvian number St. Cecilia Singers is also performing a New Zealand work commissioned especially for the choir.

Led by Shona McIntyre-Bull, the choir is in capable hands. Shona, who has taught music and trained choirs at Auckland Diocesan School for Girls for the past 11 years, has been leading the St. Cecilia Singers since 2011. Under her tutorage the choir has gone from strength to strength.

“Dio has a long tradition of choral excellence,” says Shona. “St. Cecilia Singers have been running for over thirty years. We have an incredible team of singing teachers including our voice and language coach, Rachel Sutherland, who is the principal vocal consultant with the NZ Secondary Students Choir. I feel extremely lucky to be part of it. 

Shona has a wealth of experience and accolades behind her. She was a founding member of the NZ National Youth Choir, and sang with the choir from 1979 – 1984. She has been a member of the NZ Chamber Choir, Voices NZ, since 1999, and has sung with many other top chamber choirs in NZ.

Shona is a graduate of Auckland University’s music school. A stellar student, she was selected for the prestigious Marie d’Albini scholarship which would have seen her study singing overseas. However, her ambition was to become a teacher and have the opportunity to inspire others.

“Singing is my greatest joy. I just hope in my teaching my great passion for singing is passed on”

Shona is incredibly proud of St. Cecilia Singers, who punch above their weight. Dio is a small school of a little over 800 students in Year 9 – 13. They’re up against schools with over 2000 students to select their choirs from.  

“No matter where I set the bar, they exceed it.” Shona says, “You just have to keep climbing.”

Diocesan is committed to providing the very best education in the Performing Arts, and is currently undergoing construction of an ambitious new Arts Centre, the first stage of which is due to be completed in early 2017. The multi-million dollar venue will include 25 purpose-built performance and lecture rooms and a 1000 seat auditorium.