Student ensemble hits high note

Maturity, skill and co-operation were the perfect recipe for success for three Napier Girls' High School students at the weekend.
The Menagerie Trio - made up of Year 12 students Phoebe Sparrow (soprano), Wei-Yan Fan (violin) and Year 10 student Ella Sparrow (piano) - won the Hawke's Bay District final of the Annual New Zealand Trust Chamber Music Contest on Sunday.
They have been selected as one of 12 groups nationwide to comptete in the semi-final in Hamilton on July 15 and will be hoping to reach the final the following evening.
The threesome played off against 55 other groups of students, and were also awarded best performance of work by a New Zealand composer for their renditions of five Deborah Buchanan songs.
Coach of the ensemble and former Chamber Music New Zealand chair June Clifford said the group knew the "secret" to chamber music.
"They're all very talented musicians and really committed to working as an ensemble and I think that's the secret of chamber music," she said. "They posses such a willingness to work in very contemporary classical genre with these songs written by Deborah Buchanan.
"She's a very highly respected New Zealand composer and the songs in themselves are very difficult in the depth of emotional feeling that they require."
One of the adjudicators, Gretchen La Roche, commented that the trio played to such a high standard they would be at home performing on any international stage.
Five other Napier Girls' High School students - Harriet Krebs (flute), Victoria Purdy (flute), Lauren Sye (flute), Mary Donkin (soprano), and Stella McMullen (piano) - were highly commended prize winners for their performances.
The school's chamber music success follows a number of other wins in recent weeks with the top place at the regional Smokefree Stage Challenge competition, two awards at the Big Sing choir festival, and four awards at the national SGCNZ University of Otago Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival.
The music contest was a three-day event, with five heats throughout Friday and Saturday leading up to the Sunday final.
Hawke's Bay is regarded as the third biggest chamber music region in NZ.
Results
Winner and best performance of a work by a New Zealand composer: Menagerie Trio -  violinist Wei-Yan Fan, soprano Phoebe Sparrow and pianist Ella Sparrow from Napier Girls' High School - $100 to each player.
Highly Commended and a KBB Award of a $50 voucher to each player: The Telemannians - flautists Harriet Krebs and Victoria Purdy and harpsichordist Ella Sparrow from Napier Girls' High School, and The Dreamers - flautist Lauren Sye, soprano Mary Donkin and pianist Stella McMullen also from Napier Girls' High School.
Highly Commended - La Vague Trio - violinist Sarah Cornes, cellist Olivia Wilding and pianist Max Beech from Havelock North High School, Karamu High School and Rudolf Steiner School, and Striano Trio - violinist Wei-Yan Fan, violist Maisie Thursfield and pianist Phoebe Sparrow from Napier Girls' High School.
KBB Award - Memoir Trio - flautist and piccolo player Marcus Jackson, clarinettist Brooks Kershaw and pianist Jeremy Wood from Lindisfarne College and Napier Boys' High School.
Adjudicators' Award - Bang Bang Bang - percussionists Tyler Caccioppoli, George Webb and Luke Bromley-McMaster from Taradale High School.