Waiheke Island Choral Society 2 Korora Road, Oneroa, Waiheke Island 1081, New Zealand

Musical Director’s Report

Waiheke Choral Society 2025

Once again we had an enjoyable year, with concerts in August and December. Our Pot-pourri for Romantics consisted of 14 new songs and three from earlier concerts, and focused on Romantic composers and more modern songs with a romantic theme. The concerts at Rocky Bay and St Peter’s went well but attendance was slightly down, possibly because so many people travel at that time. The Old Spice Boys were our guest artists. The Christmas Concert programme included seven new songs and some old favorites, and again the choir performed well and we were able to make a good donation to Budgeting Services. There was almost a clash of times as the other choirs had an outdoor event starting at 4pm. We need to let them know early in the year about our dates in order to minimize the Xmas rush. The year ended with a pot-luck celebration; thank you Adrienne for hosting us.

The choir sang at two memorial services, first for a former choir member, Allan Baker, and then for Nick’s wife Angela. Our thoughts and sympathy are with Nick and all the family.

Attendance remains somewhat of a challenge, although I know that our members attend when they can. We simply have to accept that we cannot learn large, challenging works. That isn’t too tragic; there are plenty of pieces by good composers and interesting genres that are within our capabilities. At the same time I am finding it increasingly difficult to come up with a good quality programme every year, and I could happily hand over to someone else, if a new musical director emerges.

Huge thanks go to the people who quietly and efficiently make the choir run well: Carolyn, our wonderful pianist, Gavin for the non-stop task of ensuring people have the right music in front of them, Mark J the treasurer and music finder and Gulf News sweet-talker, Willi the tea-and-biscuits man, Adrienne our President, Sandy the backup conductor, Joan and Mark Y and Maya our very supportive committee members, Dee the sender-out and Gerda the Museum organiser.

And of course thank you choir members for your input into making this such an enjoyable group.

Anne Willmann
February 2026.