Sweet music comes to Taupō
Organisers of the Bay of Plenty Music School (BOPMS) in Taupō were rapt with the numbers attending and the response to the final concert on Sunday afternoon.
About 100 musicians from around the centre of the North Island attended the school, held at the Great Lake Centre and Taupō Women’s Club rooms.
Two days of workshops and rehearsals culminated in an hour-long concert at the GLC which one long time attendee described as the best she’d heard in years.
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.
It was MacMillan’s third school, including last year’s also held in Taupō.
“I love doing it. It’s such a fantastic community of musicians. The atmosphere is great, everyone is positive and it’s a really good facility. Imagine this town without it.”
Joel, who also conducted in Taupō in 2024, similarly described the weekend as “fantastic” and “even better than last year.”
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 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 flute participant, Aria Walker, described it as a lot of fun.
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.