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King’s School

King’s School is well known for the unique music programme it runs in which every boy from the age of six plays a musical instrument. The boys play regularly in a wide variety of school bands, from brass to strings, from classical to jazz to rock. Many of the senior bands have toured the country and played gigs overseas. The jazz band are to tour Sydney later this year where they have been invited to lead a concert in a new auditorium built underground with exposed lime rock walls which are dripping with crystalline minerals. They will be performing an evening concert, with an over-150-voice choir from combined Australian schools, accompanying the band.

 

The school choir has also been highly-recognised, invited last month — because of their reputation with boys’ voices — to sing the ragazzi sections in Carmina Burana alongside Auckland Choral at a special concert at the Holy Trinity Cathedral. Ragazzi is Italian for ‘children’.

 

Most recently the school was approached by the NZSO, as a high-achieving school in music, to look at a collaboration between some of their professional players and the students.

 

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King’s School director of music, Emma Featherstone, herself a former drum player in a rock band, is also a professional teaching fellow at the University of Auckland. She is passionate about putting musical instruments into the hands of children at a young age and recently won a national teaching award for her work. “We know now through scientific research that learning to play a musical instrument opens pathways in the brain at a young age,” she says. “This means children develop skills in other subjects such as maths and science, too. Performing regularly in a band also develops their self-esteem and creates an appreciation and true understanding of teamwork.

 

“I am fortunate here at King’s School to work with some very dedicated and passionate people, some 25 music staff in total, who are all as determined as I that the boys begin their journey on a lifetime love of music. One of our team, Michael Bell, who is a King’s School old boy and a celebrated composer in his own right, is currently teaching the Year 8 boys who are Grade 8 on piano, how to play the organ — because it is his passion.”