13 Jun 2018

Singing Big at the Big Sing

From Upbeat, 1:00 pm on 13 June 2018

Choir pun names add a bit of humour to The Big Sing as the annual competition starts to heat up.

Big Sing 2016

Big Sing 2016 Photo: Facebook - The Big Sing

The secondary school choral competition is underway nationwide, with record numbers of participants.

This year the Big Sing has attracted more than 10,000 students across 250 choirs, some of which have punny names.

National co-ordinator Elizabeth Crayford says she’d like to someday create a “bad pun” award because of the inventive play on words.

Her favourite is “Voicemale”. Other names include “A Choir'd Taste”, and “Choralation”.

The regional competition is completed for 2018. Now the top choirs will head to Wellington to compete in the finale in late August.

For the regional competition, the choirs performed for a 10 minute maximum of three songs, and also had the option of competing or just performing for fun.

All choirs receive feedback from the judges. For the competitive element of The Big Sing, judges have a selection meeting at the end of the rounds to ensure similar decisions are made across the country.

The judges have to do their homework too. They listen to the choral items before the competition to gain an understanding of what to listen for.

“They’re not judging them against each other really, they’re judging each choir on its achievements ... the skill of its performance, and all the other criteria,” Crayford says.

“This is a very interesting animal.”

The Big Sing Finale will take place in the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington from Thursday 30 August to Saturday 1 September 2018 and will be streamed live by RNZ Concert.