Looking back on the World Choir Games
1 Aug 2024
The World Choir Games 2024 — the largest choral event ever hosted in Aotearoa New Zealand — arrived at a triumphant end on Saturday 20 July.
Over 10–20 July, years of work came to fruition as we welcomed 11,000 singers and supporters from all over the world, including over 50 New Zealand choirs, to Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland to participate in ten days of collective singing, competitions, celebrations and choral community building. Now, it's hard to believe it's all over. Here are just a few highlights from an event we won't ever forget.
The Opening Ceremony
On Wednesday 10 July, the Sky Tower lit up like a beacon in "World Choir Games teal" and thousands of singers — some having just flown into Auckland an hour or two earlier — filed into Spark Arena for a grand Opening Ceremony. An army of volunteers marched the flags of each participating country through the arena and onto the stage. There were anthems, there were speeches, and at the heart of the ceremony, there was a cross-disciplinary, collaborative performance telling the story of collective song in Aotearoa. Ria Hall floated down the main aisle of the arena on a sculptural waka while dancers, kapa haka performers and singers wove together a display of our shared cultural heritage. RNZ put together a video of highlights from the ceremony, which you can watch here.
Competitions
Across the ten days of the Games, around 250 choirs competed in the Open and Champions Competitions, vying for diplomas, medals, and coveted category victories. Almost 50 choirs from Aotearoa took part across these categories, performing everything from gospel to waiata to pop, from Brahms to the Spice Girls. On top of the incredible achievement of having performed on this world stage, we were thrilled that four choirs from Aotearoa were named as category winners. You can read a rundown of the results of choirs from Aotearoa NZ here.
Rewaken Polycation Choir from Manurewa High School was one of many Kiwi choirs that competed in the Secondary Schools category. One Rewaken singer, Louise Ponifasio, told The Big Idea, “It’s a huge privilege to be participating at the World Choir Games, especially for us as students. [...] It’s a global event and I think it’s really important to us to represent our culture and put ourselves on the map.” Read more about Rewaken Polycation Choir, and watch a video of their World Choir Games experience, here.
INTERKULTUR, the organising body of the World Choir Games, has shone on a spotlight on several competing choirs in video form (as well as compiling some stunning highlights videos). Take a look at this montage of three choirs from different continents — the Delaware Choral Scholars, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Choir, and The Graduate Choir from here in New Zealand:
As each part of the competition came to a close, the awards ceremonies demonstrated why the World Choir Games are often referred to as "the Olympics of the choir world". At the beginning of each ceremony, conductors and representatives of each choir marched onto the stage, welcomed by cheering and applause, and when a choir was announced as a category champion, all its members raced to the podium to sing their national anthem.
For a full list of results from the World Choir Games 2024, visit the INTERKULTUR website.
Celebration Concerts
There was, of course, plenty on offer outside the competitive element of the Games. The Celebration Concerts brought together some of the top competing choirs alongside groups from Aotearoa and the Pacific to present several incredible evenings of collective singing. Audiences flocked to Night of the Dragon, Pacific Spirit, and A Choral Kaleidoscope (at which two New Zealand choirs, The Graduate Choir and Paradisum, performed alongside choirs from Australia, Asia and Europe). The Night of Song and Dance concerts showcased two award-winning kapa haka groups, Te Waka Huia and Ngā Tūmanako, as well as the New Zealand Youth Choir.
The "jewel in the crown" of these celebration concerts, as described by Artistic and Games Director John Rosser, was Matariki He Kāhui Reo (Matariki: A Constellation of Voices), a choral celebration of the whetū (stars) of the Matariki cluster, entirely in te reo Māori. This was a collaborative effort of five composers and three lyricists, performed by eight choirs from Aotearoa New Zealand whose combined power built walls of sound around a packed-out audience in Holy Trinity Cathedral.
Robert Wiremu, who conducted the massed choir movements that opened and closed the piece, described the experience to Creative New Zealand: “It’s not often the conductor gets to see the audience. I could see their faces, their eyes growing bigger and bigger and bigger, and their mouths falling open, then tears. […] I was forced into understanding it from their point of view for a moment which is pretty amazing, and the buzz was palpable."
Friendship Concerts
On each day of the Games, several Friendship Concerts popped up around the centre and suburbs of Tāmaki Makaurau. These free concerts each featured a handful of choirs participating in the Games, and the billings often consisted of groups from three different continents. Choirs sang beneath aeroplanes in the Aviation Wing of the Museum of Transport and Technology, surrounded by foliage at the Botanic Gardens, on the steps of the Auckland War Memorial Museum, and amidst the bustle of Britomart.
The Closing Ceremony
It all came to an end on the evening of 20 July with an epic display of collective singing. One highlight of the Closing Ceremony was the ultimate live performance of Te Taukaea Tangata: Breathing In, Breathing Out, the Official Song of the World Choir Games 2024, by Marlon Williams, Ria Hall, the Auckland Philharmonia, and the 600-voice Festival Choir. The choir and orchestra went on to perform a colossal medley of popular songs from around the globe, turning the arena into a dance floor and ending the Games on a very sweet note.
"A magical experience"
At the conclusion of the Games, INTERKULTUR president Günter Titsch remarked, "Auckland has thrilled the world! We have already received enthusiastic feedback from so many choirs, who described the World Choir Games 2024 as a magical and incredible experience."
Auckland Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson described the Games as "more than just a competition; it was a reminder of how music weaves its way through all cultures and has the ability to unite us as a city, country and across the globe."
World Choir Games 2024 Executive Director Kylie Sealy credited the success of the Games to "the immense support from our family of partners, funders, venues and suppliers, who helped us deliver 410 individual activities across the 11 days, along with our incredible team of 350 volunteers who were utterly dedicated in their support of our many choirs and activities."
We know that those in Aotearoa who participated in the Games — as singers, audience members, jurors, volunteers and staff — have been inspired by what they've heard and seen, as have those whose towns and cities hosted choirs who toured the country following the event. The benefits of the Games will reverberate through our choral community for many years to come. It's been a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and we'll treasure it dearly.
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