It’s very cold and very, very wet, but 120 people have gathered in Auckland’s Mt Albert War Memorial Hall on a Friday night in June. They’re here to sing. “Right, Welcome Home,” calls Kate Bell, music director of All Together Now Choir. She has made an intricate arrangement of Dave Dobbyn’s tune, and it’s time for the singers to forget about the last song, get themselves another. Welcome Home is one of the pieces they’ll perform at the World Choir Games, and they’ve been working on it for months. As they start to sing, you can feel the vibration through the floor. They’ve improved.
I first heard some of them taking on Sir Dave in March, when it was neither cold nor wet, and when 60 people were gathered in the Grey Lynn Community Centre. This is not the full competition choir. For logistical reasons, Bell has split them up, and others rehearse on different days. Welcome Home is the first song on the agenda. It’s not going well.
“Soprano 2s,” calls choir leader Steven Rapana, “That note at bar 22 – it’s not the one you’re singing.”
Rapana takes the male singers away to work on their music separately, and Bell drills the women.
“Trust yourselves to stay in A minor,” she tells the troublesome soprano 2s. “Beautiful. Now let’s see if we can get there from where we were.”
They’ve got time – back then, the World Choir Games, which open tonight, were four months away. They are a big deal, the planet’s largest choir festival. More than 11,000 choristers are now converging on Auckland for what people inevitably call the Olympics of singing. Many of the world’s best non-professional choirs are coming to compete in 56 categories – 28 each for the Open (competitive) and Champions (cut-throat) sections.
“The games – it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing, isn’t it?” Errol Tongs says during a break. He has been a member of All Together Now for five years since moving back from Australia, where he’d been a business manager at an independent school. He was a member of the school’s staff choir, but before that he hadn’t sung for 40 years. Tongs got the bug, though, and when he returned to New Zealand, he found All Together Now online. He didn’t know anyone in the choir when he joined, but he’s currently trying to convince his wife’s friend to sign up (“I’ve got her wavering at the moment”).
“I like that it’s serious but it’s not serious,” Tongs says. It’s serious enough for him to practise regularly at home. “If you’re going to do it, you may as well do it properly. I absolutely love it, and I’ve met some good people.”
Tongs’ section could simply do with more people. I count just five basses, and Bell says there’s often a shortage of male voices in community choir singing. Tonight, there are 10 men to 50 women.
Aotearoa is replete with good choir leaders, though. Bell has a master’s in composition and choral direction, and is a PhD candidate looking at how to lead and support community choirs. Like many of our best choir people, she learnt with Karen Grylls. Grylls sits atop our choral pyramid and will be a juror at the World Choir Games.
All Together Now Choir leader Rapana, who teaches singing at Auckland’s King’s College, is another who has form with Grylls. He has sung with the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir, the New Zealand Youth Choir and Voices New Zealand, our national choir led by – yes – Grylls.
The whole group reconvenes for another go at Welcome Home. The sectional training has made a difference.
“Soprano 2s, you’re close to having that rhythm right,” encourages Bell. “Yes! That was what I wanted. And thank you tenors and basses for a beautiful chord at bar 29.”
Tired but happy
John Rosser is, by his own admission, burning the candle at both ends. By the sounds of his schedule, he’s setting a blowtorch to the middle, too. Rosser is artistic and games director, the top person in Aotearoa for the World Choir Games. The games’ governing body, Interkultur, however, is in Germany, so he’s taking meetings late in the night, before 8 or 9am starts in Auckland.
You don’t often see someone so tired look so happy. But then, he’s been working on this or something like it since 2016. Rosser is a senior figure on the choral scene. He’s been chair of the New Zealand Choral Federation, chorus director at NZ Opera, and has had his own choir, Viva Voce, since 1985. More pertinently, he was in charge of the team that won the rights to bring the World Symposium on Choral Music to Auckland.
It would have attracted 1500 people to the city but it was mid-2020. No one was getting in or out. It meant, though, that Rosser was primed when the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment approached him in June that year about fronting a bid for the World Choir Games. It also showed Interkultur that Aotearoa was capable of holding a major choral competition.
Rosser thinks that’s one of the elements that tipped it ahead of the other shortlisted cities, Lisbon and Sydney, which had offered the Opera House.
“[Interkultur] knew the team could do this,” he says. “Also, we’re a bucket-list country. It’s harder to get here but people still want to come. And our cultural offering is so strong overseas, especially in Germany.”
The New Zealand delivery team has highlighted te ao Māori – there will be kapa haka for the first time, and a Matariki programme – and Pasifika choral singing in what is traditionally a white European art form. That’s changing, though, says Rosser, and not just in the South Pacific.
“It’s incredibly strong in Asian countries generally, and China has really embraced it. We’ve got more than 80 choirs coming from mainland China, each of them bringing 30, 40, 50 people.”
Bang for buck
In all, 250 choirs will be at the games and in that sense, Rosser says, a choir competition offers great bang for buck – you just need to get one conductor over the line to land 45 people in Auckland. On the flipside, there are significant costs to hosting. For starters, Interkultur charges a rights fee. And the cost of that fee is? “Significant,” Rosser laughs. “Let’s just say a million euro wouldn’t cut it.”
The organisers hope to offset some of the costs through ticket sales. Outreach events are being held all over the city, but most concerts are around the Aotea Centre and Auckland Town Hall. The opening, award and closing ceremonies will be at Spark Arena, the latter featuring Ria Hall and former chorister Marlon Williams singing a Don McGlashan and Hana Mereraiha song composed for the games, accompanied by the Auckland Philharmonia and a 600-voice choir.
But modestly priced tickets won’t cover all costs. Fortunately, central and local government have come to the party. Between them, they’ve provided $10 million of the $11m needed – a drop in the ocean by Rugby World Cup or America’s Cup standards, but a significant investment for the arts.
Of that, $3m has come via Tātaki Auckland Unlimited (TAU), the cultural and economic development arm of Auckland Council. Not everyone thinks attracting these sorts of events is the council’s job. Mayor Wayne Brown, for one, has previously said that the city could not buy economic growth with ratepayer money. Still, there’s a greeting from him on the World Choir Games website.
Whatever the mayor thinks, the case for holding events like these is compelling, and not judged simply on economics.
“We go through a rigorous process to assess events,” says Annie Dundas, TAU’s director of destination. “There’s a lot of work around the economic side, the social impacts and the environment. Most people understand hard metrics like visitor nights [accommodation] and visitor spend, but we also have measures around how people have found their experience in Auckland.”
The World Choir Games scores high in terms of gaining TAU support because it’s an arts event at a major, international scale and it’s in winter, when activity in the city is traditionally down.
“And we love the idea of bringing people from 35-odd countries for something as joyous as singing,” Dundas says. “There are community aspects, which we love as well, so it’s not just the central city, it involves schools. It’s got layers that talk to a lot of the attributes of Auckland.”
It’s mid-April and the All Together Now singers are doing the rubber chicken. It’s a warm-up exercise, a bit like a vocalised Hokey Cokey, and generates energy in the room while preparing the voice. “Can you, with your eyes, look as though you’re having a good time?” asks Bell. It seems quite a request, given what else they’re doing, but she declares herself happy with the results.
They jump straight into Welcome Home. It’s better than the last time I heard it but still a bit messy, and the tricky rhythms are proving troublesome.
“Okay,” says Bell. “Let’s tighten this up. For tonight only, I don’t care about pitch. Let’s focus on the rhythm.”
One of the miracles of a rehearsal is when the conductor gives a command and you hear it happen. Bell offers a couple of pointers and things immediately improve. Magic. Still plenty to work on, though.
The choir moves to the next piece, Te Mea Nui. It starts with a karakia-like chant, and is lovely. Bell says she composed the song herself, and that the words come from a wall of Christchurch Cathedral, where her father’s funeral was held a week before the first earthquake. While she was composing, Bell says, she was listening to a lot of Bach. “It probably owes something to JSB [Johann Sebastian Bach].” Probably. It’s beautiful. It’s not as difficult as Welcome Home, either.
“It’s important to give the singers a repertoire that shows them they can succeed,” Bell says. “Challenge is fine, but they have to enjoy themselves, too.”
Swiss singers
Mauro Ursprung agrees. He’s the director of Consonus Vokalensemble, the choir he founded seven years ago that is travelling from Switzerland to compete in the games. One of the things he looks for when selecting his singers is their ability to get on with the other members.
“The social aspect is important,” he says, Zooming in from Lucerne. “There are only 30 of us, so there needs to be a good spirit in the choir, they have to be ready to have fun together. To have a good musical character, you also need good friendships.”
It may sound like Consonus is coming to Aotearoa on a jolly, but this choir could win the lot. They are the current Swiss choir champions, and in the last World Choir Games, took three gold medals. There’s a strong choral tradition in Switzerland, especially in the mountain regions, where Ursprung grew up.
He began choral singing as a child, eventually making it to the Swiss Youth Choir, but, at 27, found himself musically homeless when his age meant he had to leave. In response, he and other over-age friends from the youth choir formed their own group.
What makes Consonus better than other choirs? Ursprung identifies four things.
“First of all, the effort. They prepare really well, especially for competitions. Also, there’s trust between me and the choir. They follow me very well, and we understand each other, so that they know what I mean and understand why I want things to be like that. The third thing, which I train, is very clear and precise intonation. Fourth is how you perform. The audience has to know what a song is about even if they don’t know the words.”
That final point will please Tuilagi Dr Igelese Ete. He is among our most prominent choral figures. He trained as a singer (yes, of course he sang under Grylls), is an associate professor at Massey University, and composed choral music for Lord of the Rings and Moana. For the World Choir Games, he’s doing double duties as Pasifika adviser and juror. He says that because the leading choirs like Consonus will inevitably be at a high technical level, he’ll be looking for their ability to communicate.
“Seeing storytelling enhanced through vocalising text is key to me,” he says. “That’s based in my cultural roots of oratory. I feel inspired and empowered when I see choirs that believe in what they’re singing about but are also passionate about the message.”
As Pasifika adviser, he’s not sure how the jurors will score choirs from this part of the world. There’s no one Pacific sound, but singing down here is different from Europe, America and Asia. For example, Swiss choirs, says Ursprung, have a pure, clean sound. Will Ete’s fellow judges get that, in the Pacific, that’s not how we sing?
“I’m hoping so,” Ete says. “This is the responsibility of jurors, to ensure that indigenous people singing their traditional sounds are celebrated. The jurors have to come together and discuss those aspects and be aware.
“My hope is that we celebrate all the various traditions of collective singing and realise that every culture has an amazing sound, that we can learn from each other. It’s all very well going on YouTube and watching it, but it’s not the same as hearing the sounds and stories being told.”
Dress for success
Mt Albert, mid-June. It’s a couple of weeks before the opening ceremony and the whole All Together Now group is here. The choir is so big that singers at the back complain that they can’t see Bell conducting, until, to good-humoured cheers, someone finds a box for her to stand on.
As a sign of how near the games are, stylist and choir member Julie Upton is invited forward to talk about performance wear. No bracelets, no necklaces, stud earrings only, she tells the singers, prefacing a brief debate over the appropriate shade of blue. Upton has brought her shoe-cleaning materials and a sewing kit. She says that as well as being a stylist who worked on the makeover TV show 10 Years Younger, she’s a professional singer. Her husband, Graham, is also in the choir. “It’s added a lovely dimension to our marriage,” Upton says.
As an experienced singer, how does she think the choir is doing? “Everyone’s getting so much better, and Kate and Steven are knowledgeable and great leaders. And there’s a lot of people. There’s a presence and a power in a lot of voices.”
Also present is Catherine Oxenham, a conducting student and former occupational therapist who runs a choir at Mt Albert Grammar, although she doesn’t teach there. She sings with All Together Now, but her role here also encompasses group wellbeing.
Oxenham explains, “It’s about the physical and mental, so that choir members can get on stage to do the best they can,” which sounds simple but isn’t.
Wellbeing is one of Bell’s preoccupations. You sense she’d kill for perfection or something like it, but she understands that not every singer is ready to be rehearsed in the way that that would require.
“I could push them much harder,” she says. “I need to get them to a point where they feel proud, and good about getting on stage, but without breaking them in the process.”
They’re close, not to breaking but to feeling good. You can hear it. As the choir runs through Wellerman (you’d know it if you heard it), a singer sidles up to me at the back of the room. “It sounds amazing. You don’t realise when you’re in it,” she says, so effusive I wonder if she’s a plant. She’s right, though.
They turn to Welcome Home. It’s much better than in March but still a bit blurry, slightly thumb-smudged. Rapana is pointing to the bridge of his nose, urging the singers towards a particular sound, as if he can smell how near they are. Bell, too, knows exactly what she wants, but maybe, after all, the singers aren’t quite at that level; maybe this is the difference between a well-drilled community group and a crack unit from Switzerland.
Suddenly it’s there. Not all of it and not for long, but it happens. That sound.
“Oh,” Bell sighs. “It’s beautiful.”
The World Choir Games open in Auckland tonight (July 10) and daily competition rounds will be focused on the Auckland Town Hall and Aotea Centre for the following 10 days. There will also be community recitals in venues including museums and churches across the city, and evening showcase performances at the Town Hall, Aotea Centre and venues such as St Matthew-in-the City. Click here for information and tickets.
Opening Ceremony
Wed 10 July
Spark Arena
A Choral Kaleidoscope
Thu 11 July & Wed 17 July
Great Hall, Auckland Town Hall | Hōro ā-Tāone o Tāmaki Makaurau
A Night of Song & Dance
Fri 12 July & Thu 18 July
Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre,
Aotea Centre | Aotea – Te Pokapū
Night of the Dragon
Fri 12 July & Wed 17 July
Holy Trinity Cathedral, Parnell
Pacific Spirit
Sat 13 July
Great Hall, Auckland Town Hall | Hōro ā-Tāone o Tāmaki Makaurau
Awards Ceremony – The Open Competition
Sat 13 July & Fri 19 July
Spark Arena
Awards Ceremony – The Champions Competition
Sun 14 July & Sat 20 July
Spark Arena
Matariki He Kāhui Reo
Mon 15 July & Tue 16 July
Holy Trinity Cathedral, Parnell
Closing Ceremony
Sat 20 July
Spark Arena