Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post

World Choir Games: Rotorua’s Sir Howard Morrison Centre to host World to WAI-BOP: Gala Concert

Aleyna Martinez
By Aleyna Martinez
Multimedia journalist·Rotorua Daily Post·
16 Jul, 2024 01:43 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Jennifer Lewy speaks about Rotorua hosting the World Choir games. Video / Aleyna Martinez

Thousands of singers from around the world have kicked off the 13th World Choir Games in Auckland. Choirs are singing in venues across Tāmaki Makaurau and this weekend some will travel to Rotorua for a show at the Sir Howard Morrison Centre. Event coordinator Jennifer Lewy told Aleyna Martinez she would not let cost be a barrier for local choirs to participate in the global choral event.

“Everyone can sing even if they think they don’t sing well, even if they think they don’t sing in tune – everyone can sing,” says Jennifer Lewy.

As chairwoman of the New Zealand Choral Federation Waikato-Bay of Plenty branch, she would know.

Lewy is also the coordinator of the World to WAI-BOP: Gala Concert - a “regional off-shoot event” of the World Choir Games, and says she is thrilled to bring the event to Rotorua.

In Tamaki Makaurau, more than 10,000 people from 40 countries are competing in the games. Dubbed the Olympics of singing, 36 jurors will hand out gold medals throughout the competition from July 10-25.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Choirs from the Bay of Plenty and Waikato are competing but Lewy said some could not afford it.

Not wanting cost to be a barrier to participation, and realising “these international choirs aren’t just going to want to stay in Auckland”, she started developing an idea for a regional event.

The Sir Howard Morrison Centre will host over 300 choristers on Sunday for the World to WAI-BOP: Gala Concert.
The Sir Howard Morrison Centre will host over 300 choristers on Sunday for the World to WAI-BOP: Gala Concert.

Sunday’s gala will bring more than 300 choristers from the Auckland event to experience Rotorua, and local choirs will get to join in on the fun, Lewy said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“Win for them, win for us,” Lewy said.

Exposing local choirs to different singing styles and cultures was a highlight, she said.

“The Austrian choir has offered to do an Austrian folk singing and yodelling workshop which anyone in the community can come to as well.

“We will be doing a New Zealand composition from a Tauranga composer, Leon Gray, called Pōhutukawa – it is a Matariki song cycle so it’s really special that we’re singing his piece in Rotorua for people coming to visit our country.

“I’m excited to bring people – some people from near where I was born – over here to see what Rotorua and New Zealand is like,” Lewy said.

Her mum was Canadian, her dad British-American and Lewy developed a love for choir growing up in Bermuda

“I adopted Rotorua as my hometown … I have three Kiwi babies.”

She sings with the Rotorua District Choir at the Methodist Church on Old Taupo Rd.

“I joined the choir after I’d had my second baby and had kind of lost myself as a person.

Chairperson of the New Zealand Choral Federation Waikato-Bay of Plenty branch Jennifer Lewy grew up singing in choirs. Photo / Aleyna Martinez
Chairperson of the New Zealand Choral Federation Waikato-Bay of Plenty branch Jennifer Lewy grew up singing in choirs. Photo / Aleyna Martinez

“The conductor up there (Jess Bradley), she’s one of my best friends and it’s just such an amazing thing to be able to make music with people you genuinely like.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“Singing has so many benefits - you can read literature about how it’s good for you, health-wise, physically – it’s good for you mentally.

“It’s just fun to come together and sing even if it sometimes doesn’t sound perfect.”

Rotorua District Choir conductor Evelyn Falconer would take the special rendition of Pōkarekare Ana featuring all the choirs at the gala.

The piece was arranged by Lewy who said she had “never arranged music before”.

Members of the Emmy-winning Young People’s Chorus of New York City in New Zealand for the games have already visited Rotorua, exploring Wai-o-Tapu and Skyline Rotorua as they began their practice.

Choirs from Nigeria, the Philippines, China, the USA, Hamilton, Tauranga, Te Aroha, Matamata, Thames, Whitianga and Rotorua are set to perform at the Sir Howard Morrison Centre on Sunday.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The gala concert will open at 7.30pm and feature each choir performing one song before joining together to sing Pōkarekare Ana at the end.

Tickets are available on Ticketmaster or there are free sessions at 1pm and 4pm at Sir Howard Morrison Centre.

Aleyna Martinez is a multimedia journalist based in the Bay of Plenty.


Save

    Share this article

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua Daily Post

Local schools unite for grand performance at Sir Howard Morrison Centre

23 Jun 08:30 PM
Rotorua Daily Post

Combined cleaner-security roles at Waikato hospitals raise safety fears

23 Jun 05:56 PM
Premium
Rotorua Daily Post

The family campground split by 100km/h highway

23 Jun 05:00 PM

Kaibosh gets a clean-energy boost in the fight against food waste

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Local schools unite for grand performance at Sir Howard Morrison Centre

Local schools unite for grand performance at Sir Howard Morrison Centre

23 Jun 08:30 PM

Students will perform kapa haka, choir, dance and drama on stage.

Combined cleaner-security roles at Waikato hospitals raise safety fears

Combined cleaner-security roles at Waikato hospitals raise safety fears

23 Jun 05:56 PM
Premium
The family campground split by 100km/h highway

The family campground split by 100km/h highway

23 Jun 05:00 PM
Hunt for motorcyclist after fatal hit-and-run: Police get several responses

Hunt for motorcyclist after fatal hit-and-run: Police get several responses

23 Jun 06:33 AM
Engage and explore one of the most remote places on Earth in comfort and style
sponsored

Engage and explore one of the most remote places on Earth in comfort and style

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP