On Friday we had 30 girls involved in the Auckland District Chamber Music Competition at the Raye Freedman Centre. This year for the first time ever Dio came away with the top award with TrioAstor placing 1st in Auckland (out of 110 groups and 8 finalists). Dio has previously had groups make the finals but never an overall winner, showing just how exceptional the achievement by these girls is! Well done to Sharon Hung (cello) He-Min Lee (piano) and Maia Dean-Martin (violin) for a fabulous performance of Piazzolla’s Four Seasons for piano trio. The trio are keeping fingers crossed for National Chamber Music finals in Wellington this August.

Ghibli Quartet also picked up an award for Most Engaging Performance of the competition. Students Elma Liao and Emma Uren arranged this piece and the judges commented on some very impressive multi-tasking going on in this medley.

The Auckland Regional finals of the Smokefree Rockquest were also held on the weekend. We were delighted to see our Deputy Arts Prefect, Olivia Beckett, was awarded the Best Vocalist (in both female and male category) in the Auckland region.

Congratulations to all of our talented musicians and we look forward to all of the music competitions still to come in the next couple of months!