CHORAL CONCERT BY HIGH SCHOOL BOYS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 25, Issue 633, 17 August 1951, Page 6

CHORAL CONCERT BY HIGH SCHOOL BOYS

USIC making in New Zealand schools has progressed by leaps and bounds in the last few years, and today makes a valuable contribution to the pattern of education throughout the Dominion. In this field, the Christchurch Boys’ High School Choir, under the direction of Clifton Cook, has won high praise. When he was in Christchurch in November, Graham Carritt, examiner for the Royal Schcols of Music, was greatly impressed by the quality of its work, and the Governor-General, Lord Freyberg, paid a special visit to the school to hear the choir. On a recent Saturday evening when the choir gave its second annual public concert, 400 boys (some of whom are shown above at rehearsal) took their places on the stage of the Civic Theatre. Among the choristers are 60 from Form VIL., and most of the members of the Ist XV., the Senior XI. and the school’s hockey and boxing teams. Clifton Cook, the choir’s musical director, is the first fulltime music master at the Christchurch Boys’ High School. In addition, he conducts the Canterbury College Choral Society, and is honorary deputy conductor of the Christchurch Harmonic Society. The recent concert included works by Handel, Purcell, Benjamin Britten, Quilter, German and Ferriers. New Zealand composers were represented in compositions and arrangements by Dr. V. E. Galway, Dr. Vernon Griffiths (who played the organ accompaniments for the choir on this occasion), and John Ritchie. A group of French songs, arranged by Mr. Cook, was sung by the Special Trebles, accompanied by Dr. L. J. Moffatt. Some of these items will form part of a half-hour programme, recorded at the concert, which will be heard from 3YA at 8.6 p.m. on August 22,