Welcome to the official site of the

Christchurch Schools’ Music Festival

Special Group rehearsals cancelled - 4th Sept!

Due to the earthquake and state of emergency in Christchurch, all special group rehearsals - Choirs, Orchestra and Concert Band - this weekend have been cancelled! We hope all is well with you and your family.

2010 Leader of the Orchestra The Festival is delighted to announce that the leader of the Orchestra for 2010 is Grace Leehan. The principals of the other sections of the orchestra have also been announced along with the desk order of the orchestra. These can be found on the 2010 Orchestra List

New Sponsor for Concert Band The Festival is delighted to announce that the CPIT Faculty of Creative Industries is the new sponsor of the Concert Band for 2010. We value the support of another tertiary education organisation in achieving the festival's mission of helping children and schools to achieve excellence in music making. We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with CPIT and thank them for their support. The CPIT Faculty of Creative Industries includes: School of Architecture, School of Art & Design, NZ Broadcasting School and School of Performing Arts. Find out more

Poster Competition winner Congratulations to Saxon Morgan, Year 5 at St Andrew’s College Preparatory School who has won the 2010 Music Festival Poster Competition. Saxon's poster design will be used for the festival poster and programme, and in addition, Saxon has won $100 and another $100 for his school .Find out more »

Massed Rehearsals - they were great! The four massed rehearsals took place on Wednesday, 18 August and Thursday, 19 August at Christ's College hall. The conductors were very pleased with the efforts of all involved. It promises to be another great festival! Keep up the hard work.

Four-Year Medals Do There is quite a long list of children who have qualified in 2010 for their Four-Year medal. This is a real achievement - take a look at the list of medallists »

School choir performance nights Do you know when your school choir will be performing in the Festival in October? Find out here »

The 2010 Music Team There are a couple of new faces in the Music team for the 2010 Music Festival. With brief biographies about each, here is the whole Music Team »

What will the Massed Choirs be singing in 2010? The list of songs for the Massed Choirs is out and, as usual, there is something to appease every appetite and to tempt singers with new or unknown genre! » More

Suggest a song for 2011 or 2012 Massed Choirs. The conductors of the massed choirs in the Music Festival are already bending their minds towards the songs that they will select for the 2011 Music Festival. It's a big job...and 100 minds are better than four, so if you think that you know of a song that would be great for the Massed Choirs to perform in 2011, or perhaps 2012, you can send your suggestion directly to the conductors! » More

Special conductor for the Festival! In what was to be two special performances at the conclusion of the 2009 Festival, the Leader of the Orchestra, Amy Lee from Rangi Ruru Girls' School, was invited to conduct the orchestra in its bracket of melodies from "High School Musical". Not only was the performance of the orchestra just wonderful, but to watch Amy conduct it through a significant number of tempo and time signature changes with such confidence and precision was, in itself, an uplifting moment for the audiences lucky enough to have been there. We congratulate Amy on her magnificent performance, not only as Leader of the Orchestra, but as guest conductor as well! Click here to watch Amy conduct!