Congratulations to Louie Campbell, winner of the 2019 Jann Medlicott Creative Art Award. The award which is administered by the Acorn Foundation is awarded to an outstanding local creative who is passionate and excelling in their chosen field of the arts with the $2000 prize going towards supporting their ambition in undertaking further study and ultimately their career in the arts.
Louie is a Katikati College student who has dedicated himself wholeheartedly to music. A singer-songwriter, Louie’s talent and ambition are evident not only from his already long list of accolades but when you listen to him perform.
Louie has been studying music outside of school through the St Cecelia School of Music and the Royal School of Music where he has excelled.
2018 was a big year for Louie. Having entered the Smokefree Rockquest, his Auckland based band Silvera won the Auckland Regional finals. They also submitted 4 of their original songs, competing alongside hundreds of other contestants from around the country where they placed 3rd in the National Finals. Louie also took out the individual award as the Nationals Best Vocalist.
In 2018 Louie also entered one of his original songs (“Tear Myself Apart”) for the Mike Chunn Play it Strange Music Competition where he was chosen out of hundreds of contestants from New Zealand to record his first song for the 2018 album.
Last year Louie was nominated for the community arts award where he won the community award trophy for Katikati and Waihi Beach.
He plays in the Katikati College concert band and jazz band as well as the Tauranga Girls College Jazz Combo and has played at the National Jazz Festival each year winning gold awards. In 2018 he took out an individual award for the best national bassist and as a group, they were awarded best combo. This year their band won the “best of the festival” band.
Earlier this year he entered the BOP Smokefree Rockquest regional finals and won first place as a soloist as well as being picked as one of the top 10 soloist in New Zealand.
As the current Arts Captain at Katikati College, he has organised Divas and Divos (School solo singing competition), written music for Shakespeare plays and wrote the music for this year’s Show Quest. You can also find Louie playing regular gigs at The Atrium Art and Artisan Fair.
Next year Louie plans to undertake study in Creative Practice: Popular Music at the University of Auckland. “I am very excited to start my University experience and feel as though this award could greatly impact my time spent at university as it will help pay for a portion of my education and living costs. ”
Jann Medlicott will present Louie with the award on the 18th September at the Creative Bay of Plenty Research Launch.
Louie has released 2 solo EP’s and a single on all streaming platforms. Click on the links below to listen and watch Louie perform.
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5njmfs05Z32qJ7I0lqrF6T?si=sLHkLLgKTQCvYgWjlw_jwQ
iTunes:
https://music.apple.com/nz/artist/louie-campbell/1354884904
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8faimDXmcTMkvOPhu-2qzA?view_as=subscriber
You can also listen to the EP and single with the Auckland based metal band “Silvera” at
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1YkyzLzfQmU5nrB2NyiFGV?si=n_zwnz4ESfSmqc1SBomzFQ
iTunes:
https://music.apple.com/nz/artist/silvera/1373155402
