11 September, 2025

Home of the hits! TGS singers create online buzz

Waiata in te reo at national showcase puts spotlight on top TGS choir

Crowdpleasers… Takapuna Grammar’s (from left) Zara Ahmed, Kaitlyn Darroch and Nina Sinclair with the prize their Leonessa choir won for Best Performance in Te reo Māori at the Big Sing Finale. The choir’s heartfelt version of “Te Iwi E” won media attention and thousands of views online. Full story, pages 38-39.

A winning waiata has generated a week of excitement for Takapuna Grammar School’s top-performing choir.
First, Leonessa was announced as winner of one of the four prized special performance awards at the Big Sing Finale, contested by the nation’s 24 best secondary school choirs.
It received the Auahi Kore Award for Best Performance of a Piece in Te Reo Māori, at the annual competition’s gala final evening in Dunedin on 30 August.
“The girls were jumping and screaming and crying,” said TGS Head of Music Lauren MacMillan. “They left it all on the stage and it was really moving.”
Since then, Leonessa’s recording of the song, “Te Iwi E”, has created a buzz online, prompting TVNZ’s Seven Sharp programme to come calling last week to feature the success. By early this week, the video on YouTube had been watched more than 10,000 times. “The girls are excited by how many views it has got.”

MacMillan said the win was unexpected, with the 36-strong choir having more Year 9 and 10 singers in its ranks than in other years.
“We’re very proud.”
The young choir had worked hard all year under choir director Elise Bradley, she said. “The Year 13s were really pleased and happy because they have high expectations.”
The senior girls’ experience of performing at previous Finales helped Leonessa, said MacMillan, who was the school’s backstage organiser in Dunedin.
They had a busy week, participating in a schools’ concert before the competition began. Before that, to earn a place at the Choral Federation’s Finale, they won their way through regional qualifying rounds, which involve more than 8000 singers across the country.
A quarter of all the national finalists were from Auckland, and of that, six of the choirs were from the North Shore, underlining the choral strength of the region and the Shore in particular. From a total of six gold medals awarded this year under the event’s points-based judging, all went to Auckland, with three of those to Westlake choirs.

Left to Right: Audrey Coxhead, Leleia Parker and Audrey Melhuish in action during the choir’s performance

The Westlake medallists were WGHS’s Cantare and the combined Westlake choir, Choralation, both directed by Fiona Wilson, and WBHS’s Voicemale, directed by David Squire. He also directs Kristin’s Euphony choir, the other North Shore gold medal winner. Choralation and Voicemale also each won a special award.
Leonessa had to settle for a silver medal overall for its Finale performances of a required five pieces over three days. But MacMillan said given it was in rebuilding mode, this was a noteworthy achievement.
She credited the school’s overall director of choirs, Keani Taruia-Pora, who is on maternity leave, with expanding the choir’s repertoire with more Pasifika works over the last few years.
That predated a recent surge in popularity for Pasifika songs performed by choirs, which was sparked by the hit New Zealand movie Tinā, which centred on a Samoan choir teacher.
Bradley had reinforced the use of te reo, and the winning song was one that had been gifted to her by the Wehi whanau. A family member helped the TGS girls learn action movements for their performance.
Use of waiata was also a wider school initiative, said MacMillan.

Hitting the right notes… Leonessa on stage at the Dunedin Town Hall for the Big Sing Finale

As singers, the girls were already open to the work needed to learn pieces in a range of languages. “They spend hours practising vowel pronunciation.”
Meanwhile, TGS’s mixed choir, Chorale, competed at Cadenza earlier in the month. This is a competition for the best of the upper North Island choirs that miss the cut to go to Finale. Chorale gained a Tui award, the equivalent of a gold medal.
This showed the school’s depth, said MacMillan. It has two non-auditioned choirs, offering the chance for allcomers to sing: in mixed Nessamore or all-boy Raionaria.
Leonessa’s next chance to show its quality live will be at the school prizegiving and Christmas concert.