If you ever get incredibly bored and need something to fill your time, I suggest finding @nzchoirconfessions on Instagram. What you will soon discover is a subgenre of arts nerds, Choir Kids… And they all have crushes on each other. The Big Sing Finale and Cadenzas are rapidly approaching, and it’s jogged my memory of how much sway this event had over my life in high school. Yes, this is a surprise to nobody, I was a choir kid.   

There are two types of choirs, Latin name, and pun name. These types don’t necessarily tell you much about the choirs themselves, but I personally love to picture all of these high school music teachers pulling at their hair trying to think of a Latin translation for “Beautiful sound” that isn’t already being used. This is how we end up with choirs called “Voice Male” and “Tonal Eclipse” alongside many Voces, Voxes Bels and Bellas.  

Choirs are hyper competitive and incredibly technical. If you’ve never been in a choir, you won’t know the true fear being a year 9 Alto 1, knowing that it was you who just sang the soprano line an octave down instead of your actual line. Choral singing is incredibly difficult to learn but there is nothing like standing within that sound. 

Finale is the big dog. That’s the dream for every public school with a semi-decent music department and it’s every August for insanely expensive private schools and massive Auckland public schools. As someone who came from a solidly Cadenza level choir, we only heard legend of choirs like Choralation.  

The thing is, there are some choirs that are just built different. Some are truly unmatched, and that’s okay. As much as finale and cadenza are incredibly difficult to qualify for if you’re not one of those established choirs, once you get there, you’ll never feel more supported in your life. I absolutely treasure my memories as a chorister, and I hope the legacy of everyone rushing to check that choir confessions page every competition night lives on for generations to come.