Performing Arts

New staff on our arts team

With innovative and exciting programmes well underway for 2019, it is great to welcome the team who are bringing new energy and enthusiasm to the department, creating and co-ordinating projects and managing events.

Olwyn Davidson is our new Performing Arts Administrator. She is on the front desk and creates that vital lifeline between itinerants, parents and students. Olwyn has a Diploma in Drama and a background working in theatre and television as both a director and lighting designer/technician. She is loving working here, getting to know the students, their families and the Diocesan community.

Lachlan Craig is Performing Arts Coordinator and has come from St Kentigern College where he was Director of Choirs and Strings. Last year he was awarded an Independent School NZ Honours Award for Service to Music. He has a First Class Master’s Degree, is a highly successful freelance tenor, Freemasons NZ Opera artist and Director of Music for the Auckland Youth Choir. In the short time he has been here, he has updated all our systems and created a new website. He is directing choirs, coordinating across choral and instrumental music, is Musical Director for both the Senior and JHS productions, assists with conducting across all the ensembles, and is teaching singing.

Rachael Brand comes with an impressive CV after completing a performance and pedagogical degree in violin in New Zealand and Germany. She has worked as director in numerous cultural centres in Norway, and on her return to Auckland was Director of Education programmes for the APO, TAPAC and Project Manager at Auckland Museum. Rachael’s role is to manage our internal and external performing arts events, work with the development team on the completion of the new auditorium, oversee marketing and community outreach programmes, produce our shows and coordinate our dance programmes. She has already secured some important collaborative partners and events that will be using our Dio facilities in 2019.

Sam Cunningham has recently been appointed as our new Performing Arts Technical Coordinator and manages a wide range of technical requirements within the arts at Dio. He comes from a diverse multi-disciplined background in the creative industries. Through his own business, he has produced shows for Benny Award-winning artist Andy Stankovich, worked closely with promoter Liberty Stage on international touring productions, and is an experienced recording engineer. Part of Sam’s new role at Dio sees him running regular workshops with students to pass on his technical knowledge and give them an insight into sound and lighting engineering and technology.

Teresa Lauago is TIC Dance this year and comes to us with a diverse background in dance and business, having taught both in schools, run her own dance business, and worked in the design and branding industry. Teresa was Curriculum Manager for Dance at Kristin School for five years where she choreographed productions and directed the annual K-13 dance show. Teresa sits on the committee for non-profit arts organisation Northern Dance Network, and is hugely experienced having competed, judged and performed in multiple dance styles over the years.

We can confidently say that we have a great team of hugely experienced practitioners heading our programmes for 2019. Everyone is excited to be involved in such a flourishing department, focusing their energies on their new roles.

Performing Arts staff, from left to right: Teresa Lauago, Olwyn Davidson, Rachael Brand, Sam Cunningham and Lachlan Craig.

Arts Council Prefects

Once again, the leaders of our 2019 Arts Council bring to the table a multitude of top-end skills across the arts. Traversing disciplines, the standards achieved at Dio never cease to amaze. These girls drive themselves and each other to explore, create and spread their passion and our 2019 team is no exception – they definitely set an example.

Hannah Barber-Wilson is principal oboe in both the Symphony Orchestra and Concert Band, principal sax in the Jazz Combo, a member of Senior Choir and leader of Handbells. Hannah possesses a very cool head, has excellent IT skills and has, for the last four years, created and run the PowerPoint presentations at our annual Arts Awards Dinner, never missing a beat!

She is flanked by two deputies who, in their own right, move across disciplines. Olivia Francis is Dio’s top percussionist and drummer, she is a principal in the Jazz Combo, Concert Band, Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, sings in the St Cecilia Singers and Senior Choir and, this year, takes a lead role in the Dio/ Dilworth production of Beauty and the Beast. She is also a keen thespian and last year took the lead role of Julius Caesar at the Shakespeare Festival nationals in Wellington. Olivia is also a very talented art and design student.

Emma Wong-She plays violin in the Symphony Orchestra, sings in the St Cecilia Singers and the Senior Choir, leads Senior Handbells and is also an accomplished thespian and dancer. This year she undertakes the role of student choreographer in the Dio/Dilworth production of Beauty and the Beast. This talented bunch will oversee the Arts Council, provide leadership in all things arts and create a vital link with staff.

We asked the girls some questions and record their responses here:

What positives do you get out of participating? Participating in these arts groups over the past seven years has allowed us to explore ourselves and our relationships with others and make lifelong friends. It allows us to have performance opportunities, extend ourselves and reach a level we would not have thought possible when we first started out.

How do you balance your busy schedules? Carefully! The School ensures that we are not too over-committed and staff are always there to help us at the pressure times during the year. And it can get pretty crazy around competition time! Our families are also super supportive, and we have learnt to prioritise.

What’s your vision for the arts at Dio this year? We want to make sure that the arts at Dio are epic again this year; that everyone and anyone can be involved in the arts and show expression, perseverance, innovation, and creativity!

Rising international stars

There is definitely some cello mania going on at Dio! After the unprecedented acceptance last year of Year 8 cellist Emily Ai into New York’s prestigious Juilliard Music School, we are thrilled that two more cellists are following a similar career path.

Eva Wu (Year 9) and Mika Kurosawa (Year 6) were both second place winners in the Young Musicians Category of the 2019 American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition in their respective age categories. Both are following in the footsteps of Emily, who won this competition back in 2017, and both girls have also been invited to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York this coming June. All these girls have been learning with Dr Lisa Chung who will be joining our itinerant team next term.

Eva Wu has also been awarded First Prize in the 2019 International Music Competition ‘Paris’ Grand Prize Virtuoso. She has the opportunity to perform at a concert in Paris, along with other virtuoso winners. Eva is auditioning for the Juilliard Summer Programme in New York and we look forward to hearing the outcome of this rigorous audition process.

We also have an exceptionally talented flautist in our midst – Ella Zhang (Year 5).

Ella entered the 2019 International Talented Young Musician Olympia Competition and has been offered the chance to perform in New York as one of the winners for her age group. Ella will also be heading off to Hong Kong to compete in the first Hong Kong International Flute Competition, again representing New Zealand on the world stage. This is an amazing achievement for such a young flautist, and we are very proud of all these exceptionally talented musicians.

Eva Wu, Ella Zhang and Mika Kurosawa

ATCL Diplomas

At the end of 2018 we had four ATCL (Associate of Trinity College, London) Diplomas attained by students at Diocesan: Ella Carter, Olivia Luxon and Lily Hillary in speech and drama, and violinist Sarah Casey in music. Both Ella and Olivia were awarded a Distinction, which is an incredible result for Year 12 students.

The girls agree this qualification has built their confidence, improved their public speaking, improvisational and memorisation skills, and overall communication. Ella Carter says: “Although very challenging at times, it has given us all a great sense of achievement and a qualification that we carry with us for the rest of our lives.”

The girls will attend the capping ceremony in June to receive their Diplomas from Trinity College London representatives.

Ella Carter also received the ‘best actor’ award for Blind Date at the NZ Theatre Festival regionals, but this achievement was unfortunately omitted from our November 2018 Dio Today publication.

National achievements for talented Dio musicians

Four of our senior vocalists, Hazel Francis, Chielin Xu, Charli Collard and Hannah Flacks have been successful in their auditions for the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir.

In January they attended their first week-long intensive and in the April holidays, will participate in another intensive in Wellington. This national choir is the jewel in the crown for young singers who want to sing in an exclusive 60-voice SATB choir with the best young voices in New Zealand. The audition process is gruelling and hugely competitive, with only 30 girls selected from over 250 singers auditioned nationally.

Our new Choral Director, Rachel Sutherland, is assistant director of this wonderful youth choir and says: “This choir not only fosters excellence in choral singing, but provides leadership opportunities, cultural experiences and builds lifelong friendships.”

Year 10 flautist Helen Kim has also been successful in her audition for the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Orchestra, comprising the country’s finest young instrumentalists. She is the youngest flute player to be accepted in the 2019 cohort and we are also delighted she has been selected for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s Mentoring Programme – a highly prestigious national programme for talented young musicians.

Chielin Xu, Hazel Francis, Hannah Flacks and Charli Collard

Beauty and the Beast cast

Beauty and the Beast

Dio/Dilworth Senior Production

The first term got off to a very busy start with rehearsals for Beauty and the Beast, the ever-popular and timeless musical classic. Using the combined skills of students at both Diocesan and Dilworth, this show promises to enchant its audiences across four nights of performances in the Raye Freedman Arts Centre in May.

Set in 17th century France, this quintessential fairy tale inspired by the original story by Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve and the shortened tale of Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, will touch your heart as it reveals all the well-loved characters and music you have come to know.

We are very excited to be collaborating with a new director this year, MargaretMary Hollins, who brings a wealth of artistic and musical theatre directorship and experience to our production. Joining her in the production team are Musical Director Lachlan Craig, Producer and Dio Old Girl Rachael Brand, Choreographer Jeremy Hinman, Costume Designer and Dio Old Girl Chantelle Gerrard, hair and makeup by Rachel Holland, prosthetics Ian Thomas, Lighting Designer Tim Williams, Props and Set Designer Tim Booth, Stage Manager from Dilworth Elise Caldwell, and Assistant Stage Manager Katie Peacock. This incredibly experienced production team is not only enjoying collaborating with the 50-strong cast, but also with the Diocesan students who are assisting and shadowing them in their roles. This group of talented students – Emily Clelland (Assistant Director), Dilynne Muller (Assistant Producer), Courtney Eliott (Head of Backstage) and Emma WongShe (Dance Captain) have been invaluable throughout the creative process, and are gaining experience and expertise from industry professionals – together with a 60-strong backstage crew.

This production of a ‘tale as old as time’ is sure to touch your hearts.

Drama initiatives

It has been exciting to see the energy with which the 32 girls who make up the cast of The Sad Club (written by Luke Barnes with music by Adam Pleeth) have been working in rehearsals this term. This play is a new piece specially commissioned by the National Theatre London for the Connections Festival. Diocesan is the only school in New Zealand to be allowed to perform this play as part of this prestigious festival.

Last year the School produced a great play called When They Go Low by Natalie Mitchell as part of the festival and we were delighted to be invited to be part of the Connections Festival again this year.

The cast of The Sad Club will be embarking on a trip in July that includes a host of amazing experiences. We are also thrilled to announce that it has recently been confirmed that the company will be one of only nine performance groups for the International Ayr Youth Theatre Festival, as a result of an intensive application process.

We are also writing and directing our own contemporary devised work, Ahakoa he iti he pounamu, which means ‘Although it is small, it is a treasure’, about the challenges and appreciation of being a young person in Aotearoa New Zealand. As a land influenced by a myriad of immigrant cultures, we have a distinctive story to share. Being commissioned to do our own piece is a real honour.

The company will be performing The Sad Club and our devised work Ahakoa he iti he pounamu as part of the Diocesan NZ Theatre Federation One Act Play Festival between 27 and 29 June.

Top dancers achieve national and international status

Sophie van der Meijden

Rylie Wilkinson Diocesan has more than its share of top end dancers, from national champions in Irish and ballroom dancing to ballet and contemporary stars.

This April, three of our top ballet and contemporary dancers will be representing New Zealand in the USA at the Dance Worlds in Orlando, Florida. Rylie Wilkinson (Year 10) and Olivia Blanchard (Year 11) are both members of the senior jazz troupe from MEBA that are currently the national champions, and Sophie van der Meijden (Year 8) is in the junior troupe.

Rylie spent a week in Melbourne in January on a jazz scholarship at Jason Coleman’s Ministry of Dance. Next term she will enjoy a two-week ballet scholarship at Chilton Ballet Academy in Wellington.

Olivia has been awarded two dance scholarships – one to attend the Rambert School’s senior summer intensive in London in July and one for the Central Ballet School in London. And to top it off, both girls have been re-accepted into the New Zealand School of Dance as National Scholars and Junior Associates, the third year they have both participated in this prestigious programme.

Sophie is busy preparing for the upcoming Australasian Alana Haines Ballet Competition and will be auditioning for the New Zealand School of Dance Associates programme.

Our ballroom star, Ondine Payne (Year 11), had an amazing year in 2018 and by the end of it, she and her dance partner had become National Champions in the Adult Level 2 Ballroom category and won six silver awards at the nationals.

We also have a budding Indian classical dancer in our midst. Year 8 student Bharathi Manikandan is studying both Bharatanatyam and Carnatic music and is one of the star students at the Anuradha’s School of Indian Dance. She started dancing at the age of six and has gone on to perform in major traditional dance productions and displayed her talent at many cultural events. Bharathi’s dream is to graduate in dance (Arangetram) in the next few years.

Ondine Payne Olivia Blanchard

ARCHIVES

Absent Friends To

One of the most enjoyable aspects of sole-charge archiving is that no two days tend to be alike, and one never knows who or what is liable to appear. On Tuesday 16 October the Archivist, Evan Lewis and volunteer worker Annette Johnson were just getting to the coffee drinking part of their Tuesday morning when, who should call in, but former physics teacher Cecil Wong.

Cecil, a physics specialist, taught Science at Diocesan from 1976 to 1986, he coached basketball and contributed to school fundraising in various ways. In addition to these activities, Cecil also served as the School’s semiofficial photographer and took many photographs that document the School’s daily routine, its special events, as well as its celebrations during his years of service.

He had not, however, been seen at School for some years, and it was great to ply him with coffee and discuss the Dio he and Annette had both known in the 1970s and ‘80s, as well as discussing the various pleasures of life after teaching! Now retired, Cecil has been keeping very active with family duties including grandparenting, and much involvement in the Chinese Community Centre in Mangere where, amongst other contributions, he has even been teaching beginners’ classes in ballroom dancing! It was great to catch up with him.

But of course, he was here on official business too. Cecil was on the staff during the 75th Jubilee in 1978 and so brought in three bottles of wine labelled ‘Auckland Diocesan School 75th Jubilee 1903 – 1978’. Cook’s Chasseur no less! ‘A medium white wine to mark the 75th Jubilee’.

I wonder how many of us can still remember stopping off in Te Kauwhata to sample the various offerings at Cook’s. In the case of the Archivist, it was with Mum and Dad, one of the first of a number of regular stops on the way to visit friends and family south of Auckland during various school holidays. Of course our wine culture in New Zealand has come a long way since the 1978 vintage, and as these three bottles have been sitting way up in the back of a cupboard for some 40 years, with drying, porous, potentially perished corks, it is doubtful that the contents would be in any way useful except perhaps as paint stripper!

In any event, how and where to house them will now present an interesting challenge to the Archivist who has never had to accommodate alcoholic beverages before. As Cecil himself suggested, the bottles will need to be kept upright and sufficiently contained that any leakage or explosive tendencies will not lead to other of our records being damaged.

Another recent visitor to the Archive was Old Girl Meg Bayley (Sayers) who attended school here from 1935 to 1947 and returned to teach biology at Dio from 1969 to 1988 and so worked closely with Cecil when he was on staff. Like Cecil, Meg had not been to see the new Archive facility and it was a pleasure to show both these Dio stalwarts around our new home here beneath the turf. It is hoped that, in the near future, we can record some

PAST AND CURRENT STAFF REUNION

12 noon Saturday 8 June 2019

Join together with friends and colleagues – past and present - over lunch in the School Hall. $50 ticket includes lunch and beverages – and lots of chat!

We look forward to seeing you!

For further information contact Angela Coe acoe@diocesan.school.nz or Kate George kategeorge31@gmail.com

conversation with these and other former Dio staffers of the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, and so preserve their experiences of Diocesan for posterity.

Perhaps too, for the 150th Jubilee in 2053, we can open up one of Cecil’s bottles of Chasseur and toast the many who have taught here at Diocesan and their pupils over the decades. In the meantime, we extend an invitation to any and all our former teachers – please feel warmly welcome to visit the School Archive almost any Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of the year. Coffee is usually Tuesday about 9.30am – all donations will be gratefully received but please remember that, sadly, alcohol may be archived but not consumed on the premises. Cheers!

Evan Lewis, Archivist

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