Music

Night of Music

Congratulations to all involved in the fabulous Night of Music last Saturday. It was wonderful to see everyone’s beaming faces as they enjoyed the beautiful acoustic of the Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar School Performing Arts Centre. The Start Up Strings, Corelli Strings, Choir, Orchestra and Junior Strings of Banyule performed their interesting programs with energy and commitment. They also had a super fun time backstage with friends!

It is only possible to have 125 excited performers calm, happy and in the right place at the right time with a team of people working together. A huge thank you to Penelope Blanas, Jo Kittler, Anna Womersley, Jun Kwon, Annelies Billeter, Sophia Shaw, Erna Lai for their magical work on the night. Many thanks to Lisa Cascun, Rekha Colaco and Francine Stroud for their support in the weeks leading up to the event.

Special mention of course to Marie Morrow for preparing the choir repertoire early and to Liz Bonetti for jumping in to take on the choir direction so superbly.

We are grateful to Marjorie Kopke and the Heidelberg Orchestras for inviting Ivanhoe Primary to be part of this special evening.

Below is what some of the performers wrote about the Night of Music.

With thanks,

Margaret 

From Raffaela (2B, Start Up Strings)

Hi everybody, my name is Raffaela and at Night Of Music I played the violin. It is very scary to go on stage but for me it's actually easy, you just smile and act like you’re a professional. Well I know that’s what I did.

Playing the violin is extremely fun and so is performing on stage with tons of people watching. Night Of Music was: cool, fun, magnificent, spectacular, incredible and wonderful to hear. We got to play before we performed, we played UNO and drew.

We played three songs which were “Bow Rock”, “Walk on Mars” and “Spine Chiller”.

Did you know that you can play the song “Shake it Off” on the violin? My two favourite songs were “Bow Rock” and “Shake it Off”. The music was so beautiful with melody.

I can’t wait for the next concert I play in.

From Ashley (3J, Corelli Strings & Choir)

I was very excited to be performing at the Night of Music event at Ivanhoe Girls Grammar School. I get to play cello with my Corelli Strings Classmates and sing with my choir group mates! 

I also felt a bit nervous to be playing in front of a large crowd but knew it was ok to feel this way and just needs to be brave. As we started playing and singing, I felt really good and grew in confidence. It was such an amazing event and I can’t wait till the next one!

From Hamish (5L, Orchestra & Choir)

This weekend, on the 2nd of September, the Night of Music took place. Ivanhoe Primary’s choir, orchestra and other strings groups met together to perform for each other at the Ivanhoe Girls Performing Art Centre. I felt nervous as we walked out but the teachers had prepared us well. The choir sang three songs, including ‘Pure Imagination’ from the Willy Wonka movie and the Orchestra played three songs including ‘Clocks’ by the band Coldplay. The night was sold out and the parents gave us lots of applause. 

Sorry you couldn’t be there because you hurt your foot, Mrs Morrow!

A Night of Music - the video

Here is “A Night of Music” filmed on the 2nd of September 2023 from the top of the stairs at the back of the auditorium. Unfortunately, the musicians on the right of the hall were not captured on video as I had thought they would be centred in the auditorium. 

The camera was on auto and inaccessible during the performance. The set up between the pieces have been edited out. If you want a copy in the original format you will need to provide me with a USB memory stick with 8GB empty space.

Mark Kent (Principal)

Yours in Music,

The Music Team