The Arts

Music Camp 2025

Early last Monday morning, 122 talented and enthusiastic musicians and their teachers, boarded the buses for our annual Music Camp. We returned to our favourite venue, Lake Ainsworth Sport and Recreation Centre, Lennox Head, after 3 years away and had three fantastic days of music making and team building. This fantastic location, flanked by the Pacific Ocean and the beautiful tee-tree lake, is the perfect spot for our senior and intermediate ensembles to kick-start their repertoire for the year and consolidate their newly formed groups. 

The IM teachers made the most of quality time with the students to introduce new pieces and then develop each part during sectionals with specialist tutors. We loved having past teachers Mr Fons Hartog, Mr Bevan Messenger and our cello tutor Ms Deborah Davis with us to augment the talents of our Instrumental Music and Classroom Music team. 

A huge shout-out to Symphonic Winds director Ms Elsworth, Wind Ensemble director Mrs Carmen Forgan, Big Band director Ms Katrina Fawns, Paganini and Amadeus director Mrs Jamie-Lee Zhang and Asymmetry director Mr Jeff Jarrott for your incredible work preparing the music for our students and leading the rehearsal processes. Ms Ros Dargusch and Ms Ruth Donovan once again shared their talents as string musicians working with Paganini and Amadeus violins and violas over the course of the camp.

Finally, erstwhile musicians, Ms Suzannah O’Brien, Mr Connor James and Mr Brendan Mears, thank you for being our activities teachers – we love having our extended music family with us on camp!

The students really enjoyed all the activities on camp this year – mostly because they got to be in the water during the hot and muggy days. Canoeing, Stand Up Paddleboarding, and Raft building and testing gave everyone a chance to cool down in the lake or pool and Archery/Archery Tag saw the students experimenting with their focus, aim, and strategy skills. The Year 11 students organised and incredible scavenger hunt for the first night of activities and should be commended on the precision and details of the schedule and the breadth of activities. 

Congratulations to the Year 12s who found the buried treasure at the end of the hunt! X marks the spot! Our annual trivia and costume night was also a huge success. The Year 12s developed a series of conundrums that challenged all the students and the teacher team – it is the first year in ages that the teachers didn’t have to forfeit their win! Congratulations to the 12s on their fabulous kid’s show character costumes, crazy interpretive dance section and a well-organised competition. The winners of the best costumes were UP! and our trivia champions were Tinkerbelles! Well done, everyone.

We are so grateful that we get to take this trip with our students every year – the location, the team of teachers and students, and the support of our Music families and the staff at school, really helps make it the highlight of our IM calendar. Thank you all for your support and enthusiasm! We had a great time and are ready for another fantastic year of music making.

Ms Monique McMullen

HOD- The Arts

Congratulations to Jayden Fulwood – Young Instrumentalist Prize Participant         

We are very proud of Year 12 percussionist, Jayden Fulwood, who spent his Christmas holidays mastering the Concerto for Marimba by Ney Rosauro, in preparation for his audition for The Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s Young Instrumentalist Prize 2025. Jayden was selected from a large group of impressive applicants to audition for the second round and is to be commend on his incredible performance. 

The Young Instrumentalist Prize is an annual concerto competition, designed to provide opportunities for Queensland secondary school students who play an orchestral instrument to a standard equivalent to AMEB Grade 8 or higher. Successful applicants audition for the opportunity to perform in the Young Instrumentalist Prize Finalists’ Recital at the QSO Studio. Finalists will receive a combination of cash prizes and complimentary tickets to select QSO concerts of their choosing and the first prize winner will receive the opportunity to perform with Queensland Symphony Orchestra in concert.

The six finalists have been notified already, and even though Jayden wasn’t selected for this final group, we are thrilled that his talents and dedication have been showcased in this high-profile music competition. A huge thank you to Mr Jeff Jarrott, our fantastic Percussion teacher, for supporting Jayden to reach this incredibly high level of performance.

News from Visual Art

Year 11 Visual Art excursion to QAGOMA last week inspired students to engage with a myriad of artists’ work in the extensive Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art exhibition across both galleries, GOMA and QAG. As part of their Unit – Art as Lens – students were exposed to innovative use of materials and techniques within strong cultural and personal contexts – an invaluable contribution to the students’ creative thinking for their first unit of study.

 Call out to all artists and sculptors

The theme, LITTLE CRITTERS in Quinn Park, is a sculpture event on Sunday 2nd March 2025 from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm for Clean Up Australia Day. 

Art Space Toowong is aiming for 200 sculptures in the park all made from found and recycled materials.  See attached a flyer with the details. 

Join Us for the 22nd Annual PoPArts Trivia Night

We are excited to invite you to one of our biggest fundraising events of the year—the PoPArts Trivia Night. Your support helps us continue enriching The Gap SHS Arts Programs, and we would love to see you there.

Date: Friday, March 8th

Time: 6:30 PM

Location: J.A. Robertson Hall, The Gap State High School

Tickets: Limited availability—secure yours now

This year marks our 22nd anniversary, and we are pleased to welcome back Trivia Master and Hard Quiz Champion, Andrew McMicking. Andrew generously donates his time and expertise to make this event a success, and we look forward to another fantastic evening.

What to Expect

• A night of engaging trivia for all knowledge levels
• Prizes for winning teams and best-dressed tables
• A great opportunity to connect with the school community

This is a BYO event, so bring your own dinner, drinks, and snacks. We encourage attendees to dress up in a theme of their choice, with prizes awarded for the best-dressed tables.

Tables are limited, so book early to avoid missing out.

We look forward to seeing you there!