Takapuna Grammar School Performing Arts

Massive congratulations to our choirs TGS Chorale and Leona Ensemble!

Thanks to their hard work and a whole heap of talent, they have once again impressed the judges of NZ's premiere choral competition for secondary schools, The Big Sing.

We are super excited to share that TGS Chorale has been named as one of the 24 choirs selected to compete at the prestigious Finale event in Christchurch, while Leona Ensemble are reserves for the Northern Region Cadenza festival.

This is in addition to the special awards each of these choirs earned last week at the Auckland Regional event.

These results are outstanding and we couldn't be more proud of our students.

Special thanks to Mr David Squire, conductor of Chorale, and Ms Elise Bradley, conductor of Leona Ensemble, for their commitment to excellence and their incredible support of our students.

Thank you also to our TGS Director of Choirs, Ms Keani Taruia-Pora, and to year 12 student Elaine Zhang and Soomin Kim who are the piano accompanists for Chorale and Leona Ensemble respectively.

*Photography by Jonathan Christiansen

Our choristers enjoyed more success at the Auckland Big Sing Regionals yesterday when the TGS Chorale, conducted by Mr David Squire and accompanied by Year 12 student Elaine Zhang, delivered a stunning performance that impressed audiences and adjudicators alike.

Chorale's rendition of Sure on This Shining Night, composed by Morten Lauridsen, was a particular standout, winning them the trophy for "Excellent Performance of a Choral Art Music Composition".

As always, this week of competition has been a wonderful celebration of choral music, and all the Secondary Schools that participated were inspiring.

Thank you to our incredible Choir teaching team, as well as the organisers of the Big Sing, for supporting our young singers and celebrating their talents.

*Photography by Jonathan Christiansen

After months of rehearsals, our choirs are taking centre stage at the Big Sing Auckland Regionals this week!

Not only is this a wonderful opportunity for our choirs to share the pieces they have been working so diligently on, seeing other school choirs perform a huge variety of repertoire is a valuable learning experience too.

First up was the Leona Ensemble and Nessamoré yesterday. Both choirs sang beautifully and represented TGS with pride - we were delighted with their efforts! Special congratulations goes to The Leona Ensemble who were awarded "Runner Up: Excellent Performance of a NZ or Pasifika Composition or Arrangement" for their performance of Matariki composed by Takerei Komene.

Thank you to the Leona Ensemble's conductor Elise Bradley, and conductor of Nessamoré/TGS Director of Choirs Keani Taruia-Pora, for their hard work in preparing our students for their performances yesterday. Thank you also to our wonderful accompanists Soomin Kim (Leona Ensemble) and Lisa Murata Gutierrez (Nessamoré).

The TGS Chorale will have their turn on stage tomorrow - we can't wait to see how they go!

Thank you to photographer Jonathan Christiansen for capturing these lovely images of our choirs.

Congratulations to the TGS Dance Companies, Cactus and Tempus, who delivered stand out performances on Friday night in the Secondary Schools division of the National Dance Challenge - one of the highest calibre competitions in the country.

Our premiere Dance Company, Cactus, wowed the judges with both their Jazz and Contemporary routine, taking home FIRST PLACE in both of these categories!

Our junior Dance Company, Tempus, was awarded 6th place in the Variety category.

Well done to all our dancers for representing TGS so beautifully, your dedication and hard work were clear to see. A special "high five" goes to our student choreographers Iris Cairns, Sammy Knight and Belle Phillips (Cactus) and Skyla Stoddart and Lucia Wright (Tempus) for the high quality and innovative performances they have created.

Thank you to Mrs Alana Grant, Teacher In Charge of Dance, for all your organisation and encouragement, and for being there to support the teams on the night.

The TGS Cabaret 2026 is coming soon!

If you would like to join the action on stage, make sure you submit your application form by Monday 29 June.

See the Daily Notices for all the details.

Well done to TGS Chorale who did a wonderful job entertaining residents at the William Sanders Retirement Village last Friday. It was an ideal opportunity for Chorale to get a little more performance experience under their belt ahead of the Big Sing Regionals next week, and the village residents were clearly delighted to hear the group sing so beautifully.

Thank you to the team at William Sanders for having us, and to Choir Director David Squire and Vocal Coach Kate Webber for all their guidance.

We look forward to sharing photos of Leona Ensemble who'll be singing for the students of Belmont Intermediate this Wednesday.

If you would like to see all our choirs in action, make sure you head along to Te Poho at 4pm this Sunday 14 June to watch our annual Winter Choir Concert. It will be the last time our groups will take the stage before they compete at the Big Sing Regionals, so they'll be primed to deliver a great show! Tickets are $5 on the door, cash and eftpos available.

Congratulations to Sophie Spear, Louise Dhalluin, Aisha Lashari, Clara McAdams (Y11) and our two student directors Isla Nguyen (y11) and Lucy Stuart (Y13) for their outstanding performance at the SGCNZ Victoria University of Wellington Regional Shakespeare Festival.

The students presented a fantastic performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and received wonderful feedback from the adjudicators, who praised their creativity, commitment, and stage presence.

We are incredibly proud of the hard work, collaboration, and passion they brought to the festival while representing Takapuna Grammar so well.

Our annual Winter Choir Concert is taking place at 4pm, Sunday 14 June in Te Poho at Takapuna Grammar School.

Join us for this special performance before our four school choirs take the stage at the Auckland Regional Big Sing competition.

Tickets are $5 - door sales only (cash and Eftpos available).

Huge congratulations to year 10 student Saskia Hill!

We are excited to share that Saskia has been named as a finalist in the Youthtown 2026 Play It Strange Junior Songwriting Competition (Years 9–11).

Judged by some of the leading names in the New Zealand recording industry, this prestigious competition is designed to discover and support the next generation of Kiwi music stars.

As a finalist, Saskia wins an incredible prize: she will get to record her country/pop-inspired song "Poppy on the Hill" in a professional recording studio. Her track will also be featured on the official competition finalist compilation album.

This is such a wonderful opportunity for Saskia and we are incredibly proud of her achievement.

We can't wait to hear the final track!

Huge congratulations to our amazing Takapuna Grammar bands who rocked the stage at the Smokefree Rockquest North Shore regional heats last Friday night!

We are incredibly proud of Icarus, Copywrite Left, and Slurpworm—you all absolutely smashed it and did a fantastic job performing your original tracks.

WE HAVE EXCITING NEWS! We’ve just heard that Icarus has been selected to move through to the Regional Finals. If you'd like to be there to support Icarus through to the next round on Saturday 6th June, grab your tickets here: https://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2026/smokefreerockquest-north-shore-final/auckland/freemans-bay

In the meantime, check out these awesome shots of our talented musicians doing what they do best!

📸 Icarus: Joao Diaz Martin, Victoria Bakewell, Leif McNatty, and Jesse Jewell

📸 Copywrite Left: Saskia Hill, Charlie Talbot, and Hilary Fry

📸 Slurpworm: Joshveer Singh, Thomas Garde, Gabe Tuaine-Khan, and Zidan Khaled