In what has become a highly anticipated annual event – our 6th year now – we had a great day out at Auckland Town Hall. This year it was the turn of the Iriaka orchestra and their whanau to excitedly load onto buses in Otara and whiz down the motorway to the city Students and the families enjoyed the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s APO4Kids concert ‘Old MacDonald’s Farm’ where playing of the APO combined with the antics of a cheeky yellow duck, a typical Kiwi farmer in gum boots and ‘swans’ ballerinas in tutus keep everyone enthralled. Then came our big moment – our students took the stage themselves to perform before a large audience of general public, friends and family. This was the first time this orchestra had played at the Town Hall in front of the majestic Town Hall organ , looking up at the 3 levels of seating – enough to give any musician stage fright. But the students were pros! – calm, concentrating on Whaea Jess and confident. Just to add to the excitement Maori TV were so impressed they filmed us afterwards!
A big thank you to our friends at the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra for creating this opportunity to play and to Sistema donor Ruth Foreman for funding the concert tickets for our Sistema community.