Music

Air Force Cadets Music Camp

Miller Lloyd (Year 8) and I settled into life on the RAAF Base at Richmond for seven days of living and breathing military band life. Most days started with two and a half hours of marching practice followed by up to nine hours of concert band practice. Over the week we learnt and mastered pieces from around the world with themes from Scotland, Africa and Italy.  We also played favourites from Jersey Boys to Stevie Wonder. During the course Miller Lloyd played Tenor Saxophone and I played the Baritone Saxophone and the Bassoon.

Major highlights from the course were performing for the Minister of Defence, Marise Payne; Deputy of the Royal Australia Air Force, Air Vice-Marshal Garvin Turnbull AM; and other high ranking officers of the RAAF and Air Forces from around the world. As well as showing our skills to the Defence Force, we were treated to a day with the Lancer Band, made up of members in the Australian Army Reserves.

The week of military band life came to an end after a final concert for parents and our Wing Commander, all played out and drained from over eighty hours of rehearsal, hard work and dedication to  life on base. We all dispersed and departed homewards, some back to Port Macquarie and Dubbo, others home to as far as Canberra and Tasmania.

Miller and I returned home with many great stories and ambitions for the next national musicians course in September.

Tully Munro (Year 9)

Regional Youth Orchestra of NSW

On 29 April, three McCarthy students, Augustine Mundele-Turner, Ryan Thompson and Eleanor George, travelled to Sydney to participate in The Regional Youth Orchestra of New South Wales (RYO NSW). We arrived on Sunday at the Sydney Central YHA and upon arrival, we travelled to Circular Quay and rehearsed for approximately five hours. The following three days included rehearsal that lasted approximately twelve hours.

Throughout the four days of rehearsal, we learned only two pieces, those being the first movement of “Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony” and a piece commissioned by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra titled “XPT”.

The program also incorporated tutoring and a performance from the Australian World Orchestra. As aspiring musicians, we found their advice and example incredibly encouraging and invaluable.

Being given the opportunity to participate in this program has allowed us to become better musicians, as the professionals we met and interacted with from the AWO and others, have imparted wisdom the likes of which we would not find elsewhere.

It was an amazing experience for all of us, and we look forward to playing on our own and with other ensembles in the future.