Talent Quest

Approximately 400 people were lucky enough to attend our annual Talent Quest on Wednesday April 6th hailed by many as a triumph for the school.

22 student acts, as well as the traditional Year 12 and Staff acts, entertaining the audience for almost 3 hours, providing a massive celebration to end Term 1.

So many performers are worthy of mentioning, but the award winners, as judged by our 3 expert judges, were as follows:

Year 12 girl, Head Prefect and all-round talent Gracie York was awarded Best Female Vocalist, after featuring in two acts. She nailed the Talyor Swift ballad “Champagne Problems”, easily handling it solo on the piano, and then Stephen Sanchez’s “Until I Found You” in a duet with Year 10 lad Anthony Chisholm. Gracie & Anthony picked up Best Duo for that effort.

Best Male Vocalist went to the unique voice of Year 10 Simon Cagas, who first appeared in a duet with Year 12 Baylea Young, and then mesmerised the crowd when singing Robyn’s moody dance ballad “Dancing On My Own”.

Orlando Bulmer, one of our extremely high achieving Year 12 academics, got the nod for Best Instrumentalist. He surprised the auditorium when wandering onto stage holding just a violin, and proceeded to lift the roof off the room when raising it into the air after the final climax.

One of two Year 7 solo performers on the night, Gus Hedderman, won the prestigious Best New Talent award, with an impressive performance on his electric guitar, playing solo along to the backing track of the Foo Fighters 1997 rock hit “My Hero”. Gus few high praise for his courage to perform solo at such a young age, but also played well beyond his years with crisp timing and tone.

Speaking of 90s rock, fans of the legendary band Nirvana got a treat when Year 8 boys Spencer Dickson and Henry Flynn, and Year 10 Josh Robertson, performed two Nirvana tracks (“Breed” and “Scentless Apprentice”) in what was the rockiest and loudest act of the evening. Veterans in the sound booth nodded their heads approvingly at how similar to Kurt Cobain Spencer looked and moved. The talents of Josh, who sang the vocals while playing the complicated drum beats, turned many heads as well. The boys picked up the Special Judges Award.

Of the three dance acts, it was Year 8 girls Angela Keenan and Lillian Hooper, performing for the second year running, who got the Best Variety Act, with a well-choreographed and executed dance routine to the Britney Spears smash hit “Baby One More Time”.

The big award each year however is the Best Overall Act. In the final act of the night, it was the band The Dunners – made up of Year 10 boys, lead singer Ollie Chambers, drummer Edan Van Bergen, keyboardist Xavier Zachariou and bass player Josh Robertson -- who came out and, frankly, stole the show. With a couple of them entering the stage with bear chests, and another in Crocs, and the charismatic frontman Ollie displaying a stage presence and voice that wouldn’t look out of place at any Music Festival, they crushed a cover of the Sticky Fingers tune “Australia Street”. Having been together and gigging for over a year, the boys are a slick outfit and one of the best bands I’ve seen come through the High School in the last 25 years. It is in fact their 2nd win of this award in a row.

The Year 12s, as is tradition, opened the show with a series of Run-On acts in uniform to match the event’s theme (2000s Decade), with Ralph Lampa winning Best Costumeas Shrek, and closing the night with their Finale Dance, choreographed by Year 12 girl and Prefect Grace Gregory.

As for the Staff Act, about 25 of them jumped on stage. There were two live bands - one named The Rookies (made up of 1st year staff) playing Jet’s “She’s A Genuis” and fronted by Music teacher Carlia Van Hoorn, and the other The Veterans (long-time staff, most of whom performed at this event as students when attending here) fronted by Vice Principal John Paola in a wig singing Powderfinger’s “Baby I Got You On My Mind”. Zelda Yeates, flanked by a mohawked Sandy Newman, sang truly to the Good Charlotte punk rock anthem “The Anthem”. Then a staff member in a hoodie and chains, miming as rapper Eminem performing the monster hit “Lose Yourself”, drew shocked gasps when it was revealed who he was - Principal Dave Armstrong.

It was an outstanding over all event. We thank all performers, everybody who attended, all staff who worked behind the scenes and on the night (especially Scott Solimo who every year drives the high quality performance/sound/light aspect of the event), and our judges, sound and lighting crew. We hope to make it even bigger and better in 2024.

Jud Mullins