On the 25th April, the annual ANZAC Day Dawn Service was held at the Auckland War Memorial Museum. The school’s premier choir, the Macleans College Chorale, was invited to perform at the museum.
The choir performed a thirty-minute set of songs named The Parting Glass (arr. Audrey Snyder), We Will Remember Them (arr. Edward Elgar), Light of a Clear Blue Morning (arr. Craig Hella Johnson), Locus Iste (arr. Anton Bruckner), Ka Waiata (by Richard Puanaki), and Te Aroha Nui (by Sue Mepham).
The set also included a piece by the tenors and basses named TaReKiTa (by Reena Esmail) and a piece by the sopranos and altos named The Bird’s Lullaby (by Sarah Quartel).
The choir performed on the top level of the museum at the World War I Hall of Memories. Visitors were able to listen to their performance following the Dawn Service.
Previously, MCC had been invited to perform on ANZAC Day in 2021, both at the Dawn Service and the Civil Service in the afternoon. This set had also included We Will Remember Them, Ka Waiata, and Te Aroha Nui.
Choir leader Wayne Gao commented on returning back to the museum having been part of MCC 2021. He said, “Time flies in a blink of an eye. It has been a fantastic journey for me to perform at the Auckland Museum again this year for ANZAC Memorials. It will be the memory of a lifetime to remember all the joy and happiness that have been shared with the people of MCC and the wonderful music we have performed!”
Many thanks to Mrs Sarah McNabb, the director and conductor, Mr Nathan Bevan, the manager of the choir, as well as Dr Ian Thomas for supervising the choir at this event. Well done to MCC on their well-received performance in remembrance of the fallen soldiers from the First World War.
The choir is expected to compete at the annual Big Sing Regional Festival at the Auckland Town Hall later this year.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
— Laurence Binyon, ‘For the Fallen’
29 Apr 2023
Clarissa Oblefias
