Impressive young Stand Up Stand Out (SUSO) finalists will take to the stage in a free finals event on 14 September.
This year’s crop of over a thousand emerging musicians and dancers converged on Ōtara Music Arts Centre in August to test themselves against their secondary school peers at heats and semi-finals.
The finalists who made it through represent all four corners of Auckland and are currently in preparation for their final performance.
Impressively, Aorere College and Avondale College take up nine of the 25 finalists’ slots. Other schools performing well this year include Papatoetoe High School and Northcote College. One of the finalists from Pacific Advance Secondary School is the first student from a charter school to compete and make it into the finals.
Schools from across Auckland feed into the supportive culture now synonymous with SUSO.
“SUSO brings out so much enthusiasm in these young people, it’s really great to see how supportive they are of the other performers,” says Gene Rivers, Auckland Council’s event director.
“You hear them encouraging the other performers from the back of the room. To see that kind of camaraderie from such a diverse group of students is really amazing.”
There will be 13 schools in total represented across the five categories of group vocal, solo instrumental, solo vocal, dance, and bands at the finals on Saturday 14 September, 3pm–6.30pm at Vodafone Events Centre, Manukau. Joining them will be a special guest performance by winning recording artist Kings.
SUSO is an annual music and dance competition run by Auckland Council with the support of Ōtara-Papatoetoe Local Board and media partner Flava, bringing together young performers from secondary schools across Auckland to compete for a share of $6000 in prize money.
Check out the Our Auckland event listing for more information.
