By Addy Noakes

For an entire week, Cooper Currie & I, Addy Noakes, performed 4 public shows for the Christchurch Primary Schools Festival Orchestra. I play Tuba, and Cooper plays Bassoon. We performed six works, three with the choirs, and three by ourselves. The orchestra was huge and consisted of about 80 students from schools throughout Christchurch. We had rehearsed every Saturday since August and attended a holiday programme. On the week of the shows we soundcheck with the choirs every morning 8.30am-10.30am. The Orchestra was conducted by the awesome Tony Ryan! He was such an encouraging conductor to play with and had a genuine great sense of humour. We are lucky enough to have him come in to work with the Chisnallwood Orchestra tomorrow! Cooper & I made countless friends. All in all, it was an amazing experience and we would totally recommend auditioning for 2025!

By Addy Noakes (Tōrea Rm 13)

By Pieta Hextall