Music Matters

String Orchestra awarded Platinum at VSMF

A HUGE congratulations to String Orchestra for being awarded Doncaster Secondary College's first ever Platinum award at the Victorian School's Music Festival in the Intermediate Strings section. The students all played brilliantly under the direction of Hannah Walters, and were awarded Outstanding levels for all categories, an incredible achievement. This is the result of three and a half years of development of the string program by Hannah and Josh Verco. They have spent countless hours planning and preparing for lessons, rehearsals, performances, camps and tours. This has built a culture that the students and supportive parents have bought into completely, with regular practice routines at home and attendance at 7:30am rehearsals on Wednesdays. All resulting in the high standard of performances such as this one. Well done String Orchestra! We're so proud of you all.

Watch the performance here: https://youtu.be/wK440wq_fUs

Important Dates

Tuesday 2nd September – 9am VSMF Concert Band

2pm VSMF Wind Symphony

Tuesday 9th September – 7pm Spring Concert – All instrumental students required (excluding Rock Program – Rock Showcase 23/10)

Thursday 11th September – 1pm VSMF Junior Jazz

3:30 VSMF Senior Jazz

Tuesday 14th October – 6:30pm 2026 Year 7s info night and instrument trials

Tuesday 21st October – 7pm Concert Band Instruments Soiree

Wednesday 22nd October – 7pm String Instrument Soiree

Thursday 23rd October – 7pm Rock Band Showcase

Week of 27th October – Auditions for 2026 Ensembles

November (date and time tbc) VSMF – Soundworks

Tuesday 9th December – Orientation Day. Soundworks and Stringworks perform.

Third term is always a crazy term with lots of events throughout the school and many of them in Music. It started with our senior ensembles, still on a high after their extremely successful Queensland tour at the end of second term, getting right back into rehearsals and working on their repertoire for the Victorian Schools Music Festival (VSMF). For some of the students, this was on top of a hectic rehearsal schedule for the school production of The Crucible. There were quite a few Music students in the cast as well as a quartet who provided musical interludes during the play. Congratulations to Sarah David, Nefeli Kouthouridou, Milly Ruffo and Isabelle Veevers for putting together the quartet and rehearsing up the pieces, then performing beautifully at all three shows.

All our ensembles have been working really well in rehearsals and are gearing up for the VSMF and/or the Spring Concert. As mentioned above, String Orchestra have lifted the bar to an incredible level with their Platinum Award. This has inspired students in all our ensembles to raise their work rate and hopefully, achieve awards of their own to be proud of.

SEAL Information Night performance

On Tuesday, Wind Symphony held extra sectionals and a full rehearsal after school before performing for the SEAL information Night. This was a great run through of their VSMF program and highlighted areas for attention over the next two weeks. It was great to see Music students strongly represented at the SEAL info night as presenters. In particular Alex Gawi who proudly spoke about the Platinum Award he’d been a part of with String Orchestra.

Winter Uniform for all performances in third term

Please note the important dates above. Remember all performances at the VSMF and Spring Concert require full Winter School Uniform. If you don’t have a green or red jumper, or any other uniform items, please arrange to borrow one from a friend or from Sian in the Health Centre. Plan ahead, be very respectful to Sian if you need to bother her, and don’t leave it until that day of the performance.

VSMF performances live streamed

All VSMF performances are live streamed via the VSMF website or this link.

https://finemusiconline.com.au/vsmf/2025-live-stream

Spring Concert tickets on sale now

Tickets are now on sale for our Spring Concert on Tuesday 9th September at 7pm. Follow this link to get your tickets.

https://www.trybooking.com/DEUKR

They are selling very fast so get in quickly as the Winter Concert sold out!

Thanks again for all your support of our Music department and we hope to see as many of you as possible at the Spring Concert.

Nick Dean

Music Coordinator