Archive #58/65: Cultural Highlights of the 2000’s

School productions played to sell out audiences and the house drama festival gave boys a chance to tread the boards, often for the first time.

Debating continued to be popular with the boys with numerous teams being entered for regional competitions. In 2006 and 2007 Lindisfarne’s senior debating teams won the Russell McVeigh East Coast North Island Debating Competition. The excellent performance in debating was partly influenced by the huge proportion of boys who undertook speech and drama qualifications under the expert and dedicated tuition of Mrs Donna Jones. Participation in bands and music studies had never been higher than in this decade.

In 2000 a new pipe band was instigated and immediately began to play a role in school assemblies and chapels. The first Performing Arts Concert was introduced in 2001 to showcase the talents of the many young musicians and performers in the school. School bands, particularly the Concord Symphonic Band continued during this period to present many concerts at school, in competitions and on tours such as that to Whangarei in 2002. Over the years, the various bands won numerous silver medals in musical competitions and in 2005 the Concord Symphonic Band won an elusive gold medal in the NZ Concert Band Festival.

More gold medals were to follow in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. In 2003 and 2004, Ben Hunt was invited to join The New Zealand Secondary Schools Jazz orchestra - only the second Lindisfarne boy to achieve this. Scott Ansell was to repeat this honour in 2007. In 2004 Mathew West won the Young Musician of the Year competition and was a finalist again the following year. To celebrate the golden jubilee of the school in 2003, the school commissioned internationally renowned musician Dr. Ken Dye from Notre Dame University in Chicago to create a musical piece , Jubilate. This was the start of a long and productive collaboration between Notre Dame University and Lindisfarne College with numerous Notre Dame students visiting Lindisfarne to teach and play in school bands.

By 2008, over 50% of the school was opting to learn a musical instrument while many were involved with various orchestras, ensembles or bands. In 2005 with the help of Notre Dame visitors, school musicians provided the music for Brassed Off, the very successful drama staged superbly by Mrs Jones. The music department followed up on this with extremely successful tours of England, Scotland and the US under the banner of Kiwis in Concert Regular plays and musicals were presented during this period, starting with Sweeney Todd put on in conjunction with Hastings Girls in 2000 and followed by Fiddler on the Roof with Woodford school in 2001 and M*A*S*H* with Iona in 2002. Other dramatic offerings were Lord of the Flies produced by Mr. Ben Le Heux in 2007 and Beauty and the Beast with Woodford in 2008.

In 2002 an important development with the re-introduction of the Kapa Haka group took place. This group continued to grow in numbers and importance and played a pivotal role in the success of the inaugural Kiwis in Concert tour. Oratory also flourished and Tane Huata won the Hawke’s Bay Manu Korero Speech Competition in 2006.

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