Choral composition award winner announced

Grace Park of Westlake Girls High School has been awarded the New Zealand Choral Federation–SOUNZ choral composition prize for her work Benedicat tibi Dominus for SATB choir with piano accompaniment.

Eleven choral works from secondary school composers around the country were entered this year. The competition is managed by NZCF as part of their BIG SING programme.

Adjudicator David Hamilton comments: "All eleven entries had considerable merit and understood writing for the voice.  Each composer demonstrated an ability to effectively set a text, and to handle the choral idiom.  My final choice was quite hard, as several works stood out for different reasons, and the top two works were both fine pieces in very different styles. The winning work is marked by an exciting rhythmic setting in Latin of a familiar biblical text (“The Lord bless you and keep you...”). The composer has a fine ear for interesting harmonies, and the SATB texture is varied and well supported by its piano accompaniment. I gave second place to Bryony Gibson-Cornish (Rangi Ruru Girls School, Christchurch) for her evocative and atmospheric piece South Brighton Love Song. I was keen to acknowledge that this work stood out from the other commended pieces for its sensitive and imaginative writing."

Benedicat tibi Dominus will be performed at the BIG SING Choral Finale in Dunedin on Saturday 29 August by a Westlake Schools choir.

Grace is no stranger to competition success, having taken first place in the 2008 student composition competition organised by Auckland’s V8 Vocal Ensemble.

"The reason for using Latin was because I thought it sounded more mystical and as a chorister, I know how hard it is to sing in English!" Grace told us. "Singing a lot of Latin pieces in choir helped me do the word setting. We had recently been singing John Rutter's "The Lord Bless You and Keep You" which is of the same bible verse. I often listen out for texts in other songs and try to make my own interpretation of them.

"Also, Westlake Schools recently lost a very brave friend named Juke Jaimeson whom I dedicated this music to and so that kept the "peace" concept while composing.
 
"I am a Kiwi of Korean descent and although there are many skilled musicians and teachers in Korea, I think personally, New Zealand was the place for me to be creative. Because NZ has a shorter history than many other countires, I understand that NZ composers have influences from all over the world. This is fortunate for students like me as you can get a taste of everything!

"Last year, I traveled to Denmark with Key Cygnetures Choir to the World Choral Symposium and because we were the only choir from New Zealand, we took a lot of NZ works to showcase. This was one of the best memories of my life because although they were all NZ music, the genre and style were very different and the audience loved it.

"I would like to continue to study music at university majoring in singing and composition. Hopefully in the future I would like to become a professional singer and also a film score composer. "