Rangi Ruru Music

Congratulations to the following students whose chamber music groups have been selected for the South Island Finals of the NZCT Chamber Music Contest, held at The Piano this Saturday June 27th. Sessions are at 11.30am and 4.30pm, free admission with no bookings required.

🎹🎻📯 Trio Elegiac (Hayley Jiang - violin, Jess Drury - French horn, Abby Fleming - piano) - performing in the 4.30pm session
🎻🎻🎻🎻Cinnamon Scrolls (Renee Jiang and Tiffany Li - violins, Donna Qiu - viola, Emma Xing - cello) who were awarded the Adjudicator's Choice award (performing in the 11.30am session)
🎺Abby Fleming (trumpet) - in a mixed school group Isotopes - performing in the 4.30pm session.
💙 💛

Details can be found at https://www.facebook.com/events/1491141329453998/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22surface%22%3A%22search%22%7D%2C%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22attachment%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%7D]%2C%22ref_notif_type%22%3Anull%7D

Rangi Ruru Girls' School

🎉 🎼 Congratulations Holly! Holly has also been recently been selected as one of 12 semi-finalists in the prestigious 2026 Kiri Te Kanawa Song Quest. This contest, previously titled the Lexus, and formerly Mobil, Song Quest, was responsible for launching the careers of many world-renowned New Zealand opera singers, including Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Dame Malvina Major.

Holly was Head of Resolutions whilst at Rangi, and performed the operatic role of Maria in our 2018 production of West Side Story with Christ's College. She was also a top level percussionist, with the highlight being a Gold and National KBB Award winner at the NZCT Chamber Music National Finals performing Bartok's Music for Two Pianos and Percussion.

From Aotearoa to Abroad - A Farewell Recital for Holly Evans - Christchurch From Aotearoa to Abroad - A Farewell Recital for Holly Evans, Soprano Holly Evans (Ngāti Mutunga) is ..., The Piano, Christchurch, Canterbury, 26 July 202

🌟 🎹 Our Head of Instrumental Music, pianist Anya Fang, wowed an appreciative audience earlier this week at the Rising Stars Concert Series in the Great Hall. Playing from memory, Anya performed a programme of music including the Liszt B minor Sonata, an epic and virtuosic work, with technical and musical assuredness and maturity beyond her years. Fresh from a week in Auckland undertaking masterclasses with the adjudicators for the international Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition Anya has been accepted as a semi-finalist in the national Lewis Eady Piano Competition and is a previous semi-finalist in the National Concerto Competition. She is currently preparing programmes of music for auditions for international piano study, hopefully in Germany.

🎶 🎼 Anya fully participates in school music, as the accompanist for Resolutions, leader of Rangi Sinfonia, pianist for the Jazz Band, as well as assisting with our junior instrumentalists and wider music programme. In past years she has also been involved in chamber music groups, reaching the South Island Finals of the NZCT Chamber Music Competition several times.

👏Congratulations Anya on your stunning performance and we know that you have a great musical future ahead of you. 💙💛 Rangi Ruru Girls' School

👏 Congratulations to Rangi Voices and Resolutions, along with their director Helen Charlton, on their engaging and musical performances at the NZ Choral Federation Big Sing on Friday June 6th. Both groups can feel very proud of what they achieved. Rangi Voices had some first time Big Sing participants, and they enjoyed the experience of singing the beautiful acoustic of the Town Hall.
🌟Resolutions' performance was genuine and heartfelt, demonstrating choral excellence and high levels of artistry. This was beautifully supported by the sensitive accompanying of pianist Anya Fang, and our string quartet Cinnamon Scrolls (Renee Jiang and Tiffany Li - violins, Donna Qiu - viola and Emma Xing - cello). A big thank you to Helen Charlton for your incredible teaching, leadership, mentoring of these young singers. 💙 💛 Rangi Ruru Girls' School

🎉 👏 Congratulations to alumna Holly Evans (2014 - 2018), who has been recently been selected as one of 12 semi-finalists in the prestigious 2026 Kiri Te Kanawa Song Quest. This contest, previously titled the Lexus, and formerly Mobil, Song Quest, was responsible for launching the careers of many world-renowned New Zealand opera singers, including Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Dame Malvina Major.

🎶 🎤 🥁Holly was Head of Resolutions whilst at Rangi, and performed the operatic role of Maria in our 2018 production of West Side Story with Christ's College. She was also a top level percussionist, with the highlight being a Gold and National KBB Award winner at the NZCT Chamber Music National Finals performing Bartok's Music for Two Pianos and Percussion.

🌟 Holly went on to study classical voice at both the University of Canterbury and University of Auckland, and is October is embarking on post graduate study at the Royal Northern Academy of Music in Manchester, England - one of the one of the world’s most forward-thinking music conservatoires. 💙 💛 Rangi Ruru Alumnae

🎶 🌟Resolutions and three of our senior chamber music groups are performing at the Great Hall on Tuesday May 26th 1.10 - 2pm, as part of the Rising Stars concert series, which features promising young musicians in concert.

🎻 🎹 📯 Information can be found at https://www.artscentre.org.nz/whats-on/rangi-ruru-girls-school-music-showcase/. Admission charges apply. Bookings are advised as these concerts are very popular. We hope to see you there supporting some of our outstanding Rangi musicians. Rangi Ruru Girls' School 💙 💛

🎤What a special evening on Saturday as Ōtautahi officially opened its new stadium with a fabulous concert—featuring none other than our Head of Learning Area for Music, Mr Thin, and alumna Cassie Henderson.
🥁Mr Thin plays percussion for the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and was onstage as part of Synthony, alongside many of our itinerant music teachers who are also part of the CSO.
🤘He was cheered on by many members of the Rangi Ruru community in the 37,000-person crowd, including some ākonga from his form class who brought along signs to show their support.
🏟“It was a very cool event to be part of,” says Mr Thin. “It was a very busy gig, there was a lot to think about but it’s all about making sure the audience have a good time.”
👩‍🎤Mr Thin also caught up with Cassie Henderson (Class of 2012) at the performance, who finished her New Zealand tour with the show, alongside Six60, Kaylee Bell and other special guests.
🎟“It was lovely to see her again, and she was telling me about some of the Rangi Ruru students she had caught up with at her shows.”
⚡It is not the first time Mr Thin has played with Synthony, having also played the Electric Ave and Rhythm and Alps festivals, amongst others.
🏃However, it was the first time he had played a gig and got up the next day to run a marathon, completing the full Akaroa Marathon first thing on Sunday morning!