An update on Matariki Lead In

Your committee has been busy finalising the details of this winter’s Lead-In gathering for Song leaders. As we have indicated in earlier posts, we are holding it this year at Waihoanga in the Otaki Gorge over Matariki Weekend (27-30 June). We are shaping up a diverse and exciting programme with most of our contributors, facilitators and presenters now confirmed.

There are around 14 sessions programmed to run over the two and a half days, as well as other informal activities.

Photo: NASA

There will be a Matariki flavour to the weekend, with a pre-dawn celebration of Matariki rising, and opportunities to learn songs relevant to Matariki, including ones that have been composed by our own members especially for this occasion. A supplement to these new waiata is a workshop on tips for pronouncing Māori correctly, and introducing kupu for your choir. There is also a specific session on Matariki for community choirs.

We will be running useful workshops on expanding your Tech horizons, such as getting wired for sound, recording and videoing for your singing community, and a workshop dedicated to exploring creative ways of get your choirs moving - adding another dimension to your songs. There will be ample opportunity for singing throughout the weekend with a few sessions dedicated to song-learning built into the programme - songs of celebration and gratitude - along with warm-ups, shorter songs, healing songs, and song swap sessions.

There will be interesting hands-on workshops on how to create a 3-part canon, improvisation exercises for leads and fifth parts for songs of various genres including Afro-American Gospel, as well as tips and tricks for running children’s choirs.

We will also have facilitated discussions on the subject of mentoring song-leaders, SLNA moving forward, and a guided tour of our swept-up SLNA website, its functionality and how you can make it work for you. We are awaiting confirmation from presenters to run a session on an aspect of music therapy, and a workshop on vocal care, and hope to have these topics secured soon.

Shannel.