What happens when we include learning a musical instrument into our child’s learning environment? Science and research data tells us that it will help to enhance academia as well as general wellbeing and social skills. It is the only activity that lights up the brain like fireworks by getting the left-brain and right brain fully working simultaneously.

Just ask our alto sax player Aren Madsen who came second in the City of Kingston’s Writing Competition “Ink About It” with his work “Burning Memories”. And while you’re at it, ask our trumpet players Joshua Stein and Jasmine Hall, alto saxophone player Bunnawat Muenjohn, percussionist Tobias Swales, bass player Odin Pongracz, cello and piano player Ivy Cripps and performing arts and voice student Mark Petkoff who all won bursaries from Latrobe University in the recent “Science Talent Search Competition”. They were 8 out of 11 participating Cheltenham students who are also instrumental music students. Interesting!!!!!

A big congratulations goes to Galen Sullivan, one of our up and coming guitar players, who was appointed as one of the representatives for the Youth Advisory Committee for Kingston Youth Services. This is a huge honour and no mean feat considering the amount of young people who applied for the position. Well done, Galen.

Many of our music students are kicking goals!!

What a MASSIVE year we have had in the Chelts Instrumental Music Department in 2019. We have had four big IM concerts throughout the year including the Year 7 Debut Concert, Ensembles Extravaganza, two big Soirees as well as performances from our Choir and Senior Concert Band at ANZAC and other whole school assemblies. We hosted The Windsor Band Competition and were visited by Australian Music Industry legend Ross Wilson in the role of a judge and performing his huge hit “Eagle Rock” with our students.

We also had appearances, performances and student mentorship by other well known music industry figures including Phil Ceberano, Leah Howard (resident Director of School of Rock and The Rocky Horror Show), Glen Reither (Icehouse), Ben Cripps (Human Nature, Kate Ceberano), Nik Pringadi (Boy George) and Tracy Kingman (James Reyne). We had a very successful Chelts Got Talent competition, lunchtime concerts, Morning and Afternoon tea performances with our Local Member of Parliament, His Honourable Mark Dreyfus and students received official letters from him to thank them for their performances.

This year we hosted Stringfest and Junior Bandfest in our auditorium with several other schools, including Brighton, Mentone Girl’s and Mckinnon Secondary students attending for the day. Our students each received a cd of their work with the amazing ensembles and superstar conductors.

Our talented music students performed at the Year 12 whole school assembly as well as for the Valedictory dinner and will also be performing for the Presentation Night on 19th December. Our piano students will be playing background music for our upcoming Complimentary Music Parent and Carer’s High Tea, which we are hosting to say thank you for supporting the Instrumental Music Department. We will also have our students performing for the Orientation Day coming up on 11th December.

The year has flown by and we are saying goodbye to 5 of our absolute superstars; Year 12 music students Rhys White, Music Captains Nick Vargos and Georgia Nicholas, Robert Illes and Ajdin Muzur. We would like to wish you all the very best for your bright, exciting and happy futures ahead. You have been an integral part of our music history, we have so many wonderful memories to cherish and we look forward to watching your careers blossom. Good luck on your musical journey!!

SAVE THE DATE!!!

Next year is gearing up to be bigger than ever with a planned outdoor concert in the grounds of our school on Sunday 8th September 2019. We have special guests who will be performing live on stage, including Ross Wilson, Kate Ceberano, Jon Stevens from Noiseworks, John Kenny from the Rockmelons, members of the 80s band Wa Wa Nee and many more special guests. Our music students will form the bands that will be supporting these acts on the day. More info to come soon!

And if that isn’t exciting enough, we have celebrity landscape gardener and outdoor room professional Mr Jamie Durie from “The Living Room” committed to designing and building us an Outdoor Room for our aspiring musicians. This will add to our vibrant culture at Cheltenham and allow students to be able to sit in a comfortable area, playing music and inspiring all students during recess and lunchtimes. The money raised from the outdoor concert will fund this amazing venture. Can it get any better than that???

Thank you to our incredible team of Instrumental students!! You never cease to amaze us with your enthusiasm and creativity. We feel extremely proud and honoured to be able to witness your journey in life. We couldn’t do it without you and your supportive parents and guardians.

Thank you to the incredible Cheltenham Secondary College teachers and all staff for their amazing support, understanding and patience when it comes to students attending their music classes. You guys are total superstars!! You ROCK!!

Our team of instrumental music teachers are industry professionals and are innovative, modern and progressive. We are creating a well rounded, engaging music curriculum similar to the ethos of the esteemed Berklee College in America where students can experience the best of all genres from Classical to Jazz to hip hop, to Contemporary to EDM and everything in between. We are here to engage, excite, inspire and prepare students for all kinds of work situations in the future. But generally igniting a passion and love of music is our number one goal.

On behalf of myself and our extraordinary instrumental teachers; Mr Christian Meyer, Mr Adam Coad, Mr Joel Dawson, Mrs Anita Karamanis (formerly Marcou), Ms Blanka West and Mr Per Forsberg, we want to thank each and every one of you for your contributions, efforts and the magic you bring into making our workspace such a rewarding and thriving environment for us to work within.

I would like to thank 2017’s outgoing Music leader Mr Gavin Ferrier for all of his support and guidance throughout my first year as Instrumental Music Leader. I would also like to thank Mrs Kate Brady for all of her input, expertise, support and assistance in the early days. I feel so incredibly privileged and look forward to many more years at a wonderful place that is our school, Cheltenham Secondary.

Lisa Maxwell Cripps

The Cheltonian

Issue 18 · 30 Nov 2018

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