About 100 musicians from around the centre of the North Island attended last weekend’s Bay of Plenty Music School (BOPMS), held at the Great Lake Centre and Taupō Women’s Club rooms.
Organisers say they were pleased with the numbers attending and the response to the final concert on Sunday afternoon.
The hour-long concert at the GLC was the culmination to two days of workshops and rehearsals.
The choir of over 30 tutored by Julian Raphael and Laura Durville, and more than 60 instrumental musicians who formed themselves into a string group, full orchestra and wind band led by Michael Joel (strings and orchestra) and Lauren MacMillan (band) performed several pieces each in the concert as well as combining for a rousing finale of ‘Do you hear the people sing?’ from Les Miserables.
Both MacMillan and Joel who were invited to conduct at last year’s event thought the 2025 version “fantastic”.
“The atmosphere is great, everyone is positive and it’s a really good facility. Imagine this town without it,” said MacMillan.
Raphael said the music school concept corresponded with what he liked to do.
“Singing with a group of people who I haven’t met before and melding them into a troop over time. Introducing them to music from different cultures, introducing them to how the different styles of music work.”
He and Durville had taken the singing group through a range of exercises, and how natural harmony worked, he said.
“They’ve been lovely… It’s a quite different way of working, we see ourselves as song leaders rather than choir conductors. We’re more used to working with natural voices which may be a departure from what’s happened before, but it seems to have worked.”
An initiative at this year’s school to bring in young people to two workshop sessions on Saturday had been a success, said organising committee member Carrie Vander Zwaag.
One young singing and flute participant, Aria Walker, described it as a lot of fun, while saxophonist Max Christie also said he had a wonderful time.
The school will now be staged in Whakatane for two years before continuing on its regular cycle around the other participating centres – Tauranga, New Plymouth and Rotorua.
