LISTEN HERE - The Chundikuli-St.John’s choir, Dec 2019.
Since the foundation of the school, music has played a very important part in the every day life of the school. From Miss Amy Goodchild onwards, all Principals of Chundikuli placed great emphasis on Western music. Miss Annie Hopfengartner is recorded as having “surpassed all the rest”. “She was a German and we used to say, what a grand thing it was to be a German. Chundikuli then would never have voted for a war against Germany, for great was the debt we owed to this lady”. Chundikuli reached a high water mark of excellence in Music and Art in Miss Hopfengartner’s time. The school presented students for the Trinity College of Music examinations in the early days.
Prior to the 30+ year civil conflict which started in 1983, one could have safely said that most of the Chundikuli girls would have known to read music and play at least one instrument and a fair number would have belonged to the House choirs or college choir.
Listen Here: Our girls performing at the Red and Black Lockdown event
A special feature in the school’s annual programme, is the Chundikuli-St.John’s Carol Service. It was Mrs. Peto, the wife of the Rev. Henry Peto, a former Principal of St. John’s College, who thought it would be good to have a joint choir with the ability to do a four to five-part harmony. Later in the 1930’s when Miss Edith Kelk took over, she had the choir advance into the more classical such as Handel’s Hallelujah chorus from the Messiah which has remained a firm favourite of the choir over the years.